


Perfect 10

by lala_pipo



Category: SHINee
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, M/M, Magic Realism, Romance, romcom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-06
Updated: 2020-03-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:42:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 39,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22894270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lala_pipo/pseuds/lala_pipo
Summary: Choi Minho is the kind, sweet, and handsome protagonist of Jonghyun's favorite manhwa called 'Perfect 10'. While being drunk and lonely on Christmas Eve, Jonghyun wishes that Minho was his real-life partner. The next morning, Jonghyun wakes up next to Minho and chaos ensues.
Relationships: Choi Minho/Kim Jonghyun
Comments: 73
Kudos: 57
Collections: Winter of SHINee





	1. Vol. 1 - Chapter 1: Perfect 10

**Author's Note:**

> When I first read that prompt JongHo immediately popped up in my head, so I'm glad that the original prompter made JongHo one of their pairing options for that story (I added one of their other options as a side-pairing. The more ships the merrier). This was a lot of fun to write even though I always have trouble with deadlines and with word counts. *puts on a paper bag* I am sorry that I had to split this up into two parts (because first the procrastination monster got in the way, then real life obligations, and then SuperM - I am typing this as I am sitting at Victoria Couch station on my loooong way home from London). I will try to put the second part up within the next week since the ending is already written, there is just a little in the middle missing.
> 
> I've written some JongHo stories in my SHINee fanfic writer life, but all of them were very explicit oneshots, so this was a very lovely change. :)
> 
> I dedicate this to JongHo nation - or the people with superior taste as I like to call them. Can you believe that JongHo is the SHINee ship with the least published fics on Ao3? Scandalous. I know, I couldn't believe it either. 
> 
> Also, thank you pikku Tiia for letting me whine into your inbox once again. You are the best! *sends you flowers*
> 
> Last but not least, thank you to the Summer/Winter of SHINee team for organizing another fic fest! I am sorry for being such a let-down ;-;
> 
> This was supposed to be a little fic snack (word count wise) something you read on a short break, but it turns out I'm not capable of doing that.

**Vol. 1 - Chapter 1**

**Perfect 10**

The strong features of that beautiful face with its carved jawline and those full lips made Jonghyun sigh absentmindedly as he stared at a full-color picture of his favorite manhwa character. The person who looked right back at him was Choi Minho, 25, an elementary school teacher with a sweet tooth who resided in Jonghyun’s heart ever since chapter one of ‘Perfect 10’ had been released in a magazine during his teenager years. The story had been published one chapter at a time throughout the year 2003 before it had its separate release as a manhwa series composed of 10 volumes in 2004. Ever since then it had become a tradition for him to reread the manhwa and drown in an ocean of romance and first loves around Christmas each year, and this year was no different, Jonghyun sitting in a café, drinking some tea, and reading the first volume of 'Perfect 10'.  
  
He was about to flip to the next page when a familiar voice said “Sorry for being late. I couldn’t find a parking spot. It seems like everybody got a car in this town now.”  
  
When Jonghyun looked up his eyes fell onto Kibum, his best friend since high school, who pulled back an empty chair from the table with a scraping sound.  
  
“It’s that time of the year again, huh?” Kibum remarked snidely as he settled down, dropping his black messenger bag on the empty chair next to him.  
  
Closing the manhwa and pushing it aside Jonghyun answered with a sheepish “You know me.”  
  
“I will celebrate the day you will finally date someone and forget all about that Choi Minho fantasy of yours. Daydreaming about fictional characters in your mid-twenties is not as cool as you might think it is.”  
  
Casually grabbing the menu card, Kibum took a scrutinizing look at the listed beverages before he decided on a Caffe latte.  
  
“If real men didn’t suck as much as they do I wouldn’t need a fictional character to fantasize about in the first place.”  
  
Raising an eyebrow, Kibum replied “Well, thank you. Jinki and I love you, too.”  
  
“Oh come on, you know what I mean,” Jonghyun gestured, slightly slouching. “Dating is frustrating. I don’t want to get asked if I’m into fisting on a first date. But apparently, that’s already too much to ask for.”  
  
The snicker Jonghyun received in response made the corners of his mouth drop a little.  
  
“Maybe if you stopped using those dodgy dating apps and agreed upon letting me set you up with one of my colleagues instead, you wouldn’t have to face these kinds of encounters.”  
  
With a smug smile, Kibum crossed his legs and folded his hands above his knees, making it seem as if he had stated something revolutionary. But Jonghyun merely looked at him with a tired smile and picked up his cup of green tea to take a long sip.  
  
He licked his lips when he put the cup back down, weighing his words carefully. “You know I’m not into business people.”  
  
“Maybe you should be,” Kibum tilted his head slightly, smirking “They have money.”  
  
Rolling his eyes Jonghyun sunk even further into his seat, his posture resembling that of a Tetrimino that didn’t quite fit into a row.  
  
“That’s not something that matters to me. I just want someone nice, and sweet, and kind. Someone who likes me for who I am, someone –“  
  
“The last one might be hard,” Kibum interrupted him with a grin, dodging Jonghyun’s attempt of hitting him.  
  
“Someone I can laugh with, who is smart and eloquent, you know. Someone who completes me. I think those are just very basic attributes most people look for in a partner, and yet I will spend another Christmas alone like some loser with no game.”  
  
Sighing in exhaustion Jonghyun threw his head back, looking straight up at the chandelier hanging above their heads, his eyes disconcerted by the sudden increase in brightness.  
  
“I told you, you can come over and have dinner with me and Jinki. I wanted to try some American recipe for roast chicken.”  
  
Jonghyun pulled a face. “No, thank you. I don’t want to witness two people being all lovey-dovey on Christmas. It’s bad enough if I have to do that for the rest of the year. Let me catch a break for once.”  
  
“You are just jealous,” Kibum concluded and wrinkled his nose.  
  
“You bet I am!”  
  
Jonghyun didn’t even try to hide that fact. He was jealous, jealous of the couples he walked past on the street, jealous of the people who went into flower shops to buy their partners bouquets, and even jealous of the housewives who woke up an hour before their husbands to prepare lunch boxes for them. Everyone and their pets seemed to be in love these days while Jonghyun couldn’t even remember the last time he had gone on a proper date, let alone had serious butterflies in his stomach while looking at someone. It frustrated him that he was still single while the people around him began to settle down with their partners. But no matter what he had tried; the dating apps, the club visits, the blind dates set up by friends, the lingering at coffee shops approach, all of them had failed terribly, and he was still a lonely single in Seoul who doubted that his situation would change anytime soon. At this point in his life, Jonghyun believed that only a miracle could change anything about his current existence as a bachelor, but Jonghyun didn’t believe in miracles and felt like he was therefore doomed to be eaten by a pack of dogs in his apartment eventually with no one around to even notice.


	2. Vol. 1 - Chapter 2: Lonesome Rider

**Vol. 1 - Chapter 2**

**Lonesome Rider**

Snowflakes settled in soft, little hills upon the window sills, the freezing temperatures of late December letting them slowly pile up without the risk of melting right away. It was dark except for the bluish flickering of the old tube television in a small apartment in Dongdaemun, its resident sitting on the floor, crossed-legged, and eating some cheap ramen from the convenience store downstairs; an opened bottle of soju standing on the low table in front of him. The sound of Jonghyun slurping his noodles overshadowed the volume of the TV, an old drama from the early 2000s being shown tonight. Jonghyun had stopped paying attention to the show after ten minutes, the plot boring and predictable. Man A is a lonely single man and finds woman B who turns his world upside down. They fall in love, marry, and have kids, the end of the story, and the end of another overused plot.  
  
Jonghyun hated romance, less for the irrational pedestal society had placed it onto, but more for the fact that he was a lonely single man in his 20s who hadn’t found someone who turned his world upside down yet. He hated seeing couples, hated being surrounded by them, not because of their affections towards each other annoyed him, but because he was envious of what they’ve had. Something he wanted to have so badly as well. He wanted to experience the perfect romance, the forehead kisses, the cuddling and the snuggling on a sofa late at night, the small dates, and the big ones, he wanted to make breakfast for someone, wanted to be treated special by someone, he wanted that big love at first sight kind of love that people always talked about. He wanted butterflies swarming around his insides, wanted to see the world through pink-tinted glasses, and felt betrayed by the world that only ever let him experience that kind of love through books and movies.  
  
He was bitter, felt like the Grinch of love, not wanting to destroy Christmas but people’s relationships instead. A small, dark spot inside his brain begrudged his friends’ relationships. Why were Kibum and Jinki so disgustingly happy while he sat around all alone on Christmas with nothing but cheese ramen and soju?  
  
“Fuck my life,” he said out loud and poured himself another shot of soju, only to empty it right away, a hissing sound falling from his lips as he pressed his eyelids together. The alcohol burned pleasantly in his throat and he enjoyed the tingling sensation it left in his limbs and the numbness in his head.  
  
“Life would be so much easier as a manhwa character. I wouldn’t even mind the dramatic car accident followed by amnesia plotline if it brought someone like Choi fucking Minho into my life,” Jonghyun mumbled to himself as he poured himself another shot.  
  
With a deep sigh he sank onto his back; the floor cold and hard. “Choi fucking Minho my ass.” He rose the shot glass into the air before inconveniently drinking the soju by awkwardly lifting his head. “May my wet dreams be filled with you and your everlasting beauty tonight.”  
  
He snickered to himself, the sound drenched in self-loathing. It only took seconds until a sudden burst of pain behind Jonghyun’s eyelids made him furrow his brows and he immediately stopped to make a sound, spasming. Grunting in pain, he pressed one of his hands forcefully against his temple, drowsiness crashing over him. The shot glass dropped from his other hand when he fell into a deep slumber, the glass plinking as it hit the floor, the last drops of soju trickling onto the ground, the alcohol tinting the wood in a deep brown. It was dark in the small apartment in Dongdaemun except for the flickering of Jonghyun’s old tube television which colored his sleeping form in different shades of blue.


	3. Vol. 1 - Chapter 3: Christmas Miracle

**Vol. 1 - Chapter 3**

**Christmas Miracle**

The smell of freshly brewed coffee wafted past Jonghyun’s nose and he smiled sleepily, imagining himself sitting in a small café, and watching the handsome barista in his cute uniform finishing his order behind the bar.

“Jonghyun.”

A voice smooth like velvet called out for him, and he wanted to turn his head around to see who had called him when a gentle, yet persistent nudge to his shoulder woke him up from his sweet dreams.

“Jonghyun.”

He furrowed his brow, not wanting to wake up just yet. Whoever wanted his attention could wait, he wanted to watch the cute barista for a little longer; sparkly eyes and tousled hair, broad shoulders and legs so long that they seemed to touch heaven. It took him longer than he would have liked to admit until he realized that he lived alone and that there had been no one in his apartment except for him when he had fallen asleep on the floor last night.

Startled, he tore his eyes open, blinking rapidly. He had expected to see his living room, but what he saw now made him jump in terror, his head bumping against the low ceiling above his bed. When did he go to bed? Excruciating pain shot through his head and for a second Jonghyun thought he was about to pass out, hand jolting up to press against his aching forehead as he fell back into the pillow, eyes falling shut.

“Are you okay?”

Sweet like honey, a voice that made his insides tingle. What an odd dream that was. Was it a dream within a dream? Did he play the main part in a remake of the movie ‘Inception’? A warm hand touched his forehead, and he grimaced, eyes immediately opening again. He didn’t know what he expected to see, maybe the white ceiling above his bed, or the cute barista behind the bar, but he saw neither. Instead, he was faced with the most beautiful big, brown eyes he had ever seen on someone.

“What the fuck?” was the first thing that fell from his lips, followed by the most obvious question one could ask when being in such a situation. “Who are you and what are you doing in my apartment? I’m going to call the cops.”

It was a brave thing to say, considering the person next to him could have just knocked him out in his defenseless state. There was a moment of silence before Jonghyun heard a soft chuckle, a reaction he didn’t expect.

“Isn’t it a little too early for some impromptu roleplaying? Don’t you want to drink some coffee first?”

Fingers stroked his temple lightly and then he had to silently watch as the person got up from his bed, Jonghyun’s breath hitching in his throat as his eyes wandered along what seemed like never-ending, muscular limbs that were only covered by a pair of baby blue boxer shorts. Did robbers break into houses only wearing their underwear these days? The person moved around as if he lived in this apartment and Jonghyun helplessly watched after him as the strange man climbed down the stairs and hummed a soft melody.

Jonghyun tried to think. Hard. He had been alone last night, he was sure about that. There had only been him, his TV and maybe one too many bottles of soju. Maybe he was still drunk, suffering from a delusion; imaging hot, half-naked guys walking around his place, talking to him in a sweet voice and such. He carefully took a glimpse down from his bed niche at his living room, the stranger collecting the bottles of soju from the table and the remnants of his ramen, the blue slippers on his feet making a shuffling sound as he walked around without a care in the world. Jonghyun looked around, hoping to find some clues. His apartment looked the same, and yet it felt different. But how so? There was a different air to it. It felt somewhat warmer, cozier, and tidier. The pile of unopened letters and advertisements he had tossed on the floor next to the TV when he had come home last night, was gone and so was the dead house plant next to the window. It had been exchanged for a new one that looked the same except for it being green and flourishing.

He harrumphed silently, too afraid to make any loud noises. Wouldn’t a burglar spend his time stealing things instead of cleaning up? Gnawing on his lip Jonghyun didn’t know what to do. If this happened to be a wet dream of his, wouldn’t there be fewer clothes and more action involved? He couldn’t remember ever having a kink for people tidying up. He cleared his throat once again, this time a little more courageously, trying to take up more space in his apartment as he cautiously sat up and put his hands on the railing next to his bed.

“Care to tell me your name, stranger?” he asked and leaned over the barrier when the person in the living room came to a standstill and looked up at him with a smile. The stranger’s face was marvelous, showcasing a smile that made Jonghyun’s heart thump off beat. There was something so familiar about it, but Jonghyun was sure that he had never met this person before in his life. He would have remembered ever seeing such beauty.

“Oh man, the soju really knocked you out, didn’t it?” The man’s eyes crinkled as he smiled up at Jonghyun; his hair a rich auburn color with reddish hints. Jonghyun wanted to scream at him, wanted to know what the stranger was doing in his apartment only wearing boxer shorts, why he talked to him so casually as if they were close friends, but on the other hand, he just wanted to look at the man, drown himself in those pretty eyes, and never look at anyone else ever again. 

When Jonghyun didn’t say anything, the man cutely cocked his head, grinning faintly.

“You really don’t know, do you?”

There was something so seductive about the way the man looked at him that Jonghyun swallowed as he carefully shook his head, not sure if this was the right answer. A light chuckle fell from the stranger’s lips as he looked Jonghyun over carefully, scratching his brow as to think.

“That’s truly a pity. Because the only reason I am here is you. I’m ‘Perfect 10’s Choi Minho – always at your service.”


	4. Vol. 1 - Chapter 4: Vivid Delusion

**Vol. 1 - Chapter 4**

**Vivid Delusion**

Jonghyun’s eyes widened in shock and he gaped down at the person standing half-naked in his living room. Choi Minho? That couldn’t be. He blinked his eyes for a moment and then out of nowhere began to laugh hysterically.  
  
“Of course. Right. Nice to meet you, Choi Minho. I’m the pope,” he cackled, sounding delirious. That was probably one of the oddest dreams he ever had. Not as bad as the one in which he had been a farm boy who bred aliens for meat production, but it was definitely in his top five. So this was what his brain had created out of a manhwa figure consisting merely of ink and paper? His brain had configured a perfect 3D model. For a second Jonghyun was impressed by his imagination that had turned black strokes into something so beautiful and mesmerizing. He couldn’t remember manhwa Minho to be that muscular, but what was one’s imagination good for if not for adding a few extra details? But then again hadn’t there been an article in which scientists had found out that the brain wasn’t capable of creating new faces while dreaming? That people who showed up in one’s dream were people one had met at least once before even if it was just through running past them on the street?  
  
He wanted to grab one of his ‘Perfect 10’ manhwas next to his bed so he could compare manhwa Minho with this dream version of him only to find a book on Korean history on his nightstand. A little confused he turned his head around again and looked down at the bookshelf behind the TV, but there were no ‘Perfect 10’ books either. Instead, he saw a pile of colorful school books neatly arranged according to their height. He knew those books, had used them himself in – elementary school?  
  
“I – I – I really –,” Jonghyun stuttered, his brain feeling like it was about to malfunction and shut down completely, not capable to comprehend anything anymore. “What the fuck,” he said at last and finally made a move to get up from his bed, holding onto the handrail as he made his way down the stairs away from his bed niche. He still hoped that he was only imagining things, that ‘Choi Minho’ was something like a Fata Morgana that had popped up in the middle of his apartment and that he would be gone as soon as his feet hit the floor in his living room, but when he turned around, the man was still there, tall and way too good looking.  
  
“Oh my god, I drank too much. I will never drink any alcohol ever again,” he muttered to himself, shaking his head violently, and pretending to not see the man in front of him.  
  
He went on and about to look for the manhwa ‘Perfect 10’ in his other bookshelf, inspecting the row of books on his tiptoes, forefinger browsing along the spine of every single one of them; ‘One Piece’, ‘Slam Dunk’, ‘Dragon Ball’, ‘Attack on Titan’, ‘Fullmetal Alchemist’, ‘Akira’, 'Ouran Koukou Host Club', ‘Absolute Boyfriend’, ‘Lovely Complex’. They were all there, from the first volume to the very last, but ‘Perfect 10’ was nowhere to be found neither in the top shelf nor the bottom one. He got frustrated, felt the blood rush to his head, his neck and ears feeling hot. The series had to be somewhere. It was his dream, maybe he could project the series of manhwa onto the table with the mere help of his imagination. He felt the man’s eyes burning holes into his neck and suffered from the tingling sensation his presence left him with.  
  
“You won’t find them,” he heard the man say in a soft tone but ignored him completely as he turned around and walked over to his couch to look beneath it and see if he might have dropped a volume or two. But all he found were a few chips crumbs and way too many dustballs, his frustration slowly but surely reaching its peak. What was he even doing? Had he finally gone mad? Imaging people in his apartment? Looking for things that might not even exist? Maybe ‘Perfect 10’ had never existed in the first place and he was only part of the Matrix, plugged into a machine, controlled by people he didn’t know.  
  
He lifted his head then, casting a glance at the man standing in the middle of his room. He blinked, pressed his eyelids together tightly, saw white dots dancing in front of his eyes, but when he opened them again, the stranger was still there and was still looking like a Calvin Klein model.  
  
“You are not real,” Jonghyun muttered eventually, defeated, spiritless. He let himself fall onto the couch and pressed the palms of his hands to the sockets of his eyes, trying to regain his sanity. He heard the shuffling of slippers then, and when the sofa next to him dipped a little, he tensed, not having been aware that delusions could feel so real and tangible.  
  
Out of nowhere, there was a hand on his arm, warm and big and so promising. “Want me to pinch you?”  
  
Jonghyun couldn’t even remember nodding, but he recalled the pain, short and pointed as the man’s nails dug into his sensitive skin, scraping lightly at it. He pulled away immediately, the wheels in his head turning hectically. Could someone feel pain in their dreams?  
  
He looked straight ahead when he asked “Where are the manhwas? Where did you put them?”  
  
Some part of his brain had already figured out the answer to his question, but he still didn’t want to believe it to be true, couldn’t believe that he wasn’t dreaming.  
  
“I am the manhwa, Jonghyun.”  
  
Jonghyun swallowed, fingertips clawing at his knees, his left leg starting to bop restlessly. ‘I am the manhwa’ he repeated inside his head, feeling dumbfounded.  
  
“That’s not possible. What kind of sick joke is this?” Jonghyun turned his head to face the man next to him, confusion visible on his handsome face. “Are there hidden cameras?”  
  
Getting up from the couch, Jonghyun looked around his apartment, checked the ceiling, and the shelf, and even went as far as searching for a camera inside his plant, but he couldn’t find any. Kibum and his landlord were the only people who knew the password to his apartment. Maybe Kibum considered it funny to torment his single friend like this. Maybe he had rented a host online that vaguely resembled Jonghyun’s dream boy, and had paid him for a little role play, had given him the password, and was following the spectacle from the shelter of his own home, laughing at Jonghyun’s antics most likely. Merry fucking Christmas.  
  
“Kibum, that’s not funny,” Jonghyun spoke into the room while turning, still looking for hidden cameras. “Like not fucking funny at all.”  
  
“Whom are you talking to?” the man asked, looking quite skeptically as he watched Jonghyun go down on all fours to check for cameras beneath the table and TV station. It was pretty unlikely that someone would hide a camera there because what was the camera supposed to film? Feet? But Jonghyun was desperate, feeling like he was trapped in his mind.  
  
Ignoring the man on the couch, Jonghyun grabbed for his phone on the table, calling Kibum’s number. He waited impatiently as he listened to the dial tone, trying to look anywhere but the stranger in his apartment. Kibum didn’t pick up his phone, not the first time Jonghyun called him nor the second and third time.  
  
Discouraged, he sank onto the floor and spread out his arms and legs as he looked up to the ceiling, questioning his life. “I’m mad. I have finally gone mad.”  
  
“As cute as you are, you are also a little dramatic.”  
  
How was it possible that an imagined voice could sound so real, could have such an impact on a living human that it caused goosebumps to appear on Jonghyun’s arms out of nowhere?  
  
“Go away, you are not real.”  
  
Jonghyun acted like a defiant child by shutting his eyes and pressing his hands onto his ears, striking up the refrain of Queen’s ‘I’m going slightly mad’, his feet moving along to the rhythm. It was all just a dream, he repeated in his head. He would eventually wake up from it and everything would get back to normal.  
  
When there was a soft nudge to his leg he only sang louder and shut his eyelids even tighter, just wanting to wake up from this nightmare.  
  
Another soft nudge. “Jonghyun. Hey.” Another nudge. “Come on, shouldn’t you be happy that I’m here.” Another nudge. “For you?”  
  
The last two words made him stop singing momentarily and he slightly opened one eye to take a peek at the stranger standing next to him.  
  
“For me?” he questioned, unconvinced, swallowing when his eyes fell onto that line of dark hair running from the man’s belly button and disappearing beneath the seam of his boxer shorts. It wasn’t the right time to notice such things, but Jonghyun was only human, someone who had a weakness for good-looking men. Who could blame him for that?  
  
“Yeah, for you. You wanted me to be here, isn’t that so?”  
  
Jonghyun snorted snidely. “I was just babbling. When I wish to be rich I don’t wake up with a pillow full of 50.000 ₩ notes the next day either.”  
  
The man crouched down next to him, his expression looking slightly pitiful. “You never cared for money, so that’s not something you would wish for in the first place.”  
  
He got a point there, Jonghyun had to admit, but how did he even know that? Was it because this was all happening in his head?  
  
“How do you know that?” he asked anyway and propped himself up on his elbows with a frown.  
  
“You wanted to have the perfect boyfriend. Here I am.” The man pointed at himself with a bright grin, making it seem as if he was posing for a model contest. Shaking his head disapprovingly Jonghyun got up and ran his hands through his hair.  
  
“That’s insane. I’m insane,” he moaned and made his way up to his bed, shaking his head repeatedly. “I will be going back to bed, and when I wake up again you won’t be here anymore.”  
  
With that he crawled into his bed and hid his body completely underneath the blanket, not wanting to see anything, not wanting to hear anything, not wanting to think anything. He would never touch soju or any kind of alcohol again if it caused him to have such lucid imaginations the next morning. Maybe as he had aged he just couldn’t handle alcohol that well anymore.  
  
“Jonghyun.”  
  
The man’s voice sounded muffled through the thick blanket and Joghyun decided it was the best to simply ignore it. That voice wasn’t real. It was all just in his head. None of this way real.


	5. Vol. 1 – Chapter 5: Hard Reality

**Vol. 1 – Chapter 5**

**Hard Reality**

There was absolute silence when Jonghyun woke up three hours later. There was no sound, not a single one, not the tiniest one. Carefully, Jonghyun poked his head out from beneath the blanket like a turtle from its shell and lifted his chin, sniffing. Even the smell of freshly brewed coffee was gone. Finally. He wasn’t dreaming anymore. With a complacent smile on his face, he turned on his back and stretched out his limbs contentedly like a cat in the sun, soft, little sighs falling from his lips. He hadn’t gone mad after all. What a relief.  
  
With a newly found lightness in his steps, Jonghyun got up and swiftly climbed down the stairs to his living room, singing ‘Wake me up before you go-go’ to himself while clicking his fingers along to the beat. He was relieved to know that his vivid hallucination from the previous night had turned out to be just a dream after all and that he could go back to his usual routine without worrying about a stranger in his apartment. He was about to turn to the bathroom when something or more like someone caught his eye, sitting on his couch, wearing one of his hoodies and sweatpants that looked oddly small on his form.  
  
An irritated sounding “Hell no,” fell from his lips as he stopped dead in his tracks, the man looking up from the book in his hands.  
  
“I know, I’m sorry about the way I look. But I started to freeze in just my underwear so I borrowed some of your clothes. The hoodie fits nicely, but the sweatpants are too short. We need to buy some clothes for me I guess,” the man explained so casually while pulling on the sweatpants’ legs that Jonghyun could only wordlessly stare at him, mouth agape.  
  
Cocking his head in a cute fashion, a smile found its way onto the man’s lips. “Don’t tell me you are still thinking this is all just happening in your head?”  
  
Raising one hand as if to indicate that he needed a break, Jonghyun used the other to pinch the bridge of his nose, thinking hard. How was that even possible? By all means, he couldn’t still be dreaming. Waking up twice only to find himself still fast asleep? What nonsense was that?  
  
“It is all just in my head,” Jonghyun claimed, voice sounding raw and passive-aggressive.  
  
With a sigh, the man got up from the couch and walked towards him, the sweatpants at least 10cm too short for his stature. Jonghyun immediately stepped back when the stranger came closer, intimidated by his presence, by his height, by his looks, and not able to look him directly in the eyes.  
  
“I know that this is a lot to take in,” the stranger began, cautiously choosing his words. “But isn’t this great? This is what you wanted, isn’t it?”  
  
Jonghyun harrumphed, looking at the other’s left ear. Even his ears were kind of cute. What sorcery was that?  
  
“This is what I wanted? I’ve never wanted to wake up next to a stranger in my bed,” he stated, visibly upset.  
  
When the stranger tried to place his hand on his shoulder, he pulled back and turned around to walk to his little kitchenette. Kneeling he opened the fridge to grab a water bottle, gulping down at least half of it in one go. He felt dehydrated.  
  
“I’m not a stranger. You’ve known me for years. I’m the elementary school teacher who loves honey chips more than he should.”  
  
Jonghyun laughed scornfully into the water bottle before he put it down on the kitchen counter. “This is getting ridiculous.”  
  
He combed his hand through his hair. “Lee Junghee elementary school doesn’t even exist in this reality,” Jonghyun reasoned, trying to look at the whole situation objectively. “Whatever sick game you are playing and whoever set this whole thing up, it’s enough now. I have enough. Please just leave. Ask Kibum to give me back my clothes when you meet him later.”  
  
Thinking that he had clarified his point of view, Jonghyun made his way over to his tiny bathroom, his bladder screaming to be emptied. But the stranger didn’t even give him a break when he stood in front of the toilet, relieving himself.  
  
“Jonghyun, what do I have to do to make you believe me? I’m not a fraud, and it’s not your friend who has sent me,” the stranger talked to him through the door, at least polite enough to not open it. Proof. What kind of proof? Why did he even think about that? No matter what the stranger would tell him, he wouldn’t believe it anyway.  
  
Proof.  
  
After washing his hands, Jonghyun supported himself against the sink, looking at his reflection in the mirror. He looked tired, the dark circles under his eyes so deep that they almost made him look ghost-like.  
  
“What did you cook for Byungho on your first date?” he asked out of nowhere, not even sure why this was the first thing that had come to his mind. He could hear a soft chuckle coming from outside the door.  
  
“I tried making Pajeon, but I failed terribly so we had Chinese take away for dinner instead.”  
  
Damn. He got that one right, Jonghyun thought, disappointed. However, wasn’t it easy to answer that question? If that imposter had read the manhwas as well, he would be able to have a correct response to every single question Jonghyun could ask. There had to be something else then, something a fraud couldn’t simulate so easily. Jonghyun pondered for a while before scales fell from his eyes.  
  
“Minho’s tattoo,” he said out loud and yanked the door open, the stranger standing in front of it, looking perplexed. “Show it to me. If you are Choi Minho from Perfect 10 then you would have that tattoo he’s so embarrassed of, right?”  
  
There was a soft blush creeping onto the stranger’s cheeks, but Jonghyun interpreted it as him being caught in his lies instead of a possible other reason.  
  
“You can’t show it to me because it’s not there, right?” he said accusingly and crossed his arms in front of his chest, feeling victorious.  
  
“You really want to see that tattoo? There is nothing else that would make you believe me except for that tattoo?” the stranger asked a little ruefully, his sudden shift in attitude only confirming Jonghyun’s suspicion of the other being a fraud that had been caught.  
  
With a smug grin on his lips, Jonghyun felt like he had finally the upper hand. “Show me that tattoo which you don’t have. No one would get as far as getting a tattoo for a dumb joke.”  
  
The stranger hesitated for a moment, but to Jonghyun’s utter surprise he eventually turned around with a sigh and pulled down his pants, the outlines of a small kawaii chick holding a melon and the word ‘yummy’ becoming visible on his right buttocks. Minho had received this tattoo from his friend Kunwoo in vol. 8 who had bought himself a tattoo machine and had used a drunk Minho as his first test subject. The lines were as wonky as the ones in the manhwa, and Jonghyun swallowed hard, feeling like a complete and utter fool.  
  
“That’s impossible. Rub it,” he demanded in his despair, but even though ‘Minho’ did as he was told, nothing happened to the tattoo, no smudges, and no chips falling off, nothing except for the skin around the tattoo turning red from the friction.  
  
“Can I pull up my pants now? You know how much I hate this tattoo.”  
  
Jonghyun only nodded weakly, not sure what to think anymore. He took a step back and closed the lid of the toilet to sit down, staring into a void. No one would get a tattoo of a chick on his buttocks for a simple joke. No one would be that dumb.  
  
“I – I really don’t understand this. How is this possible?” Jonghyun wasn’t quite sure if he was about to give in to his delusion and accept the reality of him finally going mad.  
  
Minho shrugged. “I guess you could call it a Christmas miracle.”  
  
A Christmas miracle. How stupid was that? Miracles didn’t exist. The next thing that dude would tell him was that Santa Claus was real and not just a made-up story people told their children.  
  
“If you really are Choi Minho from the manhwa how come you are so self-aware? Shouldn’t you be freaked out as well? You’ve woken up in a completely different reality to the one you’ve known,” Jonghyun asked wearily, staring at his feet.  
  
The stranger crouched down in front of him again, and this time Jonghyun didn’t even try to pull back when the other reached out, taking one of his hands into his own. He was too confused and exhausted to even care at this point.  
  
“I wasn’t taken right out of the manhwa. It’s more like – how should I explain it.” He paused for a moment, gnawing on his bottom lip in thought.  
  
“Try to explain it as if you want to explain it to an elementary school student,” Jonghyun tried to help out, fascinated by the stranger’s hands. They were so big and lean, the fingers long and pretty.  
  
The man in front of him chuckled softly. “Well, you’ve read the manhwa ‘Absolute Boyfriend’, right? About the robot that was specially designed for the main character? It’s similar to that, except I’m not a robot. I’m an actual human, in case you’ve wondered,” Minho explained, but Jonghyun was only paying little attention, too fascinated by the other’s hands. How could hands be so pretty looking?  
  
“Santa – “  
  
“Don’t tell me the Santa is real story now. He’s definitely not,” Jonghyun interrupted instantly, the word Santa having caught his attention.  
  
Another soft chuckle. “You are right about that. Santa Claus is not real. Her name is actually Santa Nikola.”  
  
“A woman?” Jonghyun looked up, bewildered.  
  
A nod. “Yeah, like with so many other things in life, people thought that slapping a male name onto it would make it look more believable. But the myth of the big, old dude with the white beard isn’t real. Santa Nikola is actually really pretty and very kind, and not an old woman.”  
  
Jonghyun had reached a point in his delusion in which he had decided to accept things as they were, and not even question how insane some of them sounded. Santa Nikola, why the fuck not?  
  
“Anyway, you see. I was based on the manhwa, absorbed the character, was modeled after it – just with a few tiny alterations.”  
  
“Alterations?”  
  
Another nod. “Yeah. I am Choi Minho in character and vita, but instead of having a crush on Byungho, I’m having a crush on you.”  
  
Jonghyun couldn’t suppress the instant deepening of his facial color, bashfully looking down again, those words causing his heart to instantly beat a little faster.  
  
“This doesn’t make any sense. Don’t you feel manipulated? By – you know – ‘Santa Nikola’? You don’t even know me. How can you have a crush on someone you don’t know?” He replied, feeling bad for the other all of a sudden.  
  
“Oh, I do know you. Santa Nikola told me all about you and I was so excited to finally meet you,” he explained enthusiastically, and Jonghyun had a hard time remembering the last time someone had been excited to meet him.  
  
“She told you about me? But I don’t know hi – her,” Jonghyun struggled to make sense of the other’s story, his mind feeling like a circus filled with clowns, acrobats, and horses, all of them running around in the circus ring at the same time.  
  
“Santa Nikola knows all of us. Our wishes and fears, our hopes and aspirations. She knows when we’ve done well or when we’ve failed. She just knows.”  
  
The man sounded like he was talking about someone people referred to as God, but Jonghyun didn’t have the nerve to put too much thought into it, his mind already having a hard time comprehending the stranger’s existence.  
  
“So -,” Jonghyun began after a short pause. “What does Santa Nikola have in mind? Us living happily ever after? Here in my tiny apartment? How is that supposed to work? I don’t know you, I’m not in love with you. I -,” he stopped mid-sentence to take a deep breath.  
  
“But you have a crush on me,” Minho pointed out immediately.  
  
“Not you. Your manhwa-self. But – that doesn’t even count. You were just ink and paper, and now you are –,” Jonghyun looked at the other’s hands again which felt so warm and nice. “Flesh and bones, totally 3D. Breathing. Interacting with me. You are a whole new person, even if you are the elementary teacher who likes sweets. It’s not the same,” he explained hastily, trying to look the other in the eyes for once.  
  
There was a small pout forming on Minho’s lips. “Well, I’m here now. I have nowhere else to go. The least you could give me is a chance, right? I’m sure that I can make you fall in love with me.”  
  
Jonghyun felt like he had been the one being absorbed into a manhwa, not even sure how to respond to Minho’s straight-forwardness. He wasn’t used to people being so honest about their feelings. It was something he had always admired about Minho’s character in Perfect 10. Santa Nikola – or his delusional brain had done a great job in portraying that.  
  
“What if this doesn’t work out? What if you end up hating me?”  
  
“That won’t happen,” Minho promptly replied.  
  
Jonghyun bit his lip. “What if I end up hating you?”  
  
There was a slight frown visible on Minho’s face and he seemed to think deeply about this question before he answered.  
  
“Then – well, I guess – then I just leave.”


	6. Vol. 2 – Chapter 1: The Underwear Dilemma

**Vol. 2 – Chapter 1**

**The Underwear Dilemma**

It was seven in the morning and Jonghyun was lying in his bed with his head resting on his crossed arms, peeking down into the living room, and silently watching his new housemate. Minho was still asleep, his long body way too big for Jonghyun’s small couch, his legs hugging the blanket Jonghyun had given him in the evening, and his head bedded on a small pillow with little Peppa Pigs all over it.  
  
Some part of him had still hoped that the other would be gone the next time he would wake up, but Minho was still there, as real as Jonghyun was. Jonghyun had tried to go back to his normal life after his mind had finally admitted defeat, but it was a tough task. Jonghyun wasn’t used to having people around in his tiny apartment, let alone people who described themselves as ‘Christmas miracles’. He still tried to figure a logical explanation for Minho being here, but he couldn’t find one. None.  
  
That mysterious Santa Nikola had sent Minho on his way with a lot of school books and some official papers that seemed way too real, but no clothes or other necessities. They had to shop for everything today before Jonghyun had to get back to work the next one. Was he that naïve? Why was he so accepting of this situation? For all he knew Minho could still be a fraud, one who had prepared himself perfectly for the job, ready to come for Jonghyun’s home and bank account. Not that there was a lot the other could potentially steal.  
  
If Minho just wasn’t so damn handsome, it wouldn’t make things even more difficult for Jonghyun. How could anyone form a coherent thought when someone of Minho’s physique entered their life all of a sudden? It was an impossible task. He had tried to contact Kibum all day, but his messages were still unread and the voice mail had informed him quite clearly that Kibum wouldn’t be answering his phone for the day which probably translated to Kibum spending his day in bed with his partner Jinki. Lucky bastards.  
  
When Jonghyun finally managed to get up, he tried to be as silent as possible, not wanting to wake the other up just yet. It was good to be with one’s thoughts alone for once, not having that velvety, smooth voice always talking to him. He thought about the previous day while taking a shower, thought about them cooking ramen and planning on what to do now that they lived together in Jonghyun’s apartment. As weird as this whole situation was, their conversation about Minho going to try and find a job at a nearby school and them going shopping for necessities was anything but weird. It seemed like the most logical step to take. They had even looked for job offers online already, Minho ambitiously writing everything down that seemed interesting.  
  
When he came out of the bathroom, dressed in a white hoodie and skinny jeans, Minho stood in front of the kitchen counter, frying eggs.  
  
“Good morning,” he said with a smile which was way too enthusiastic for it being not even eight yet. “Are rice and egg, okay? Your fridge is kind of empty.”  
  
If Jonghyun had been alone he wouldn’t have eaten any breakfast, so he just nodded and watched Minho flip the egg gracefully in the frying pan. There was probably nothing that this man couldn’t do.  
  
“So is this your usual program now? Making breakfast? I know you’ve done that for Byungho.” Jonghyun pointed out, hiding his hands in the pouch on his hoodie. It was odd to think that he played Minho’s longtime crush Byungho now and for a second he caught himself wondering whether somewhere out there Byungho had been presented to someone as a ‘Christmas miracle’ as well.  
  
“I’m not gonna lie, it is intimidating that you know of my past relationship so well. How can I sweet-talk you effectively if you know all my tricks already,” Minho teased with a wink, Jonghyun sheepishly looking down, finding that little wink way too alluring. Ever since he had chosen Choi Minho as his favorite character in the series he had wondered what had made him stand out so much in a line-up of characters that all had very different qualities. Eventually, he had figured out that it was a combination of characteristics he didn’t possess. It was the lightness Minho displayed in every scene he was in. He was a bright person who was always in a good mood and rarely ever angry. He was sweet to the people he cared about, but also a little charmer towards people he particularly liked. It was a mix of traits Jonghyun considered appealing.  
  
“I guess you have to figure out new tricks then,” he replied in a soft tone, not looking at Minho while speaking. He had often imagined how he would have acted around Minho, had inserted himself into the plot of the manhwa, but having the ‘real thing’ now was different, slightly daunting.  
  
After breakfast they took Jonghyun’s little, black KIA to drive to the nearest mall, strolling around with Jonghyun checking a shopping list they had compiled the evening before on his phone.  
  
“I will pay you back as soon as I’ve found a job,” Minho told Jonghyun after his credit card was used for the third time that day, buying Minho a pair of sneakers and a pair of more formal-looking leather shoes. For their trip, Minho had borrowed a pair of sandals from Jonghyun, the only pair his feet had kind of fit into, but they had been made for a hot day in summer and not a snowy winter morning in December, Minho’s feet looking frozen already from walking around outside the cold for a while.   
  
“You can bet I will remind you of it,” Jonghyun replied when the cashier handed him the receipt and the bag with Minho’s shoes inside. “Since I’m not the sugar daddy kind of guy.”  
  
That comment made Minho smile and he nudged the other playfully before taking the paper bag from him. “But I would make the perfect sugar baby.”  
  
As to put some more truth to his claim, Minho blinked cutely with his eyes and thanked Jonghyun for the shoes in the cutest, but also grossest fashion imaginable, Jonghyun feeling completely embarrassed and quickly walking off, trying to ignore the little giggle from the cashier who had followed their little banter.  
  
“By the way – do you usually go for younger guys or am I an exception?” Minho asked candidly as he caught up to Jonghyun by jogging, Jonghyun feeling his ears turn hot once again. Minho’s directness needed some time to get used to. The only person close to him who was that frank had always been his best friend Kibum, but they shared a completely different relation since they had known each other for years.  
  
“I’ve only ever dated older guys,” he murmured hesitantly while fumbling with putting his credit card into his wallet and stuffing it back into the pocket of his jeans. The other made him nervous.  
  
The answer earned him another nudge to the shoulder and a very cutely spoken “Then I’m the first one. Awesome!”  
  
When they walked past a Japanese clothing store Jonghyun came to a sudden stop and checked the list on the phone. “I think we can find some basic items like shirts and pants in UNIQLO. You’ve bought clothes there before, right?”  
  
“Mmh – Will you pick some out for me? It might be fun to compare our taste in clothes,” Minho suggested, already stepping inside the store. Jonghyun followed him wordlessly, not sure if he liked the idea of using Minho as a dress-up doll. Everything would suit Minho anyway – even a potato sack. He even made the combination of a hoodie, sweatpants that were way too short on him, and sandals work.  
  
Minho disappeared into an aisle with T-shirts straight away, going mostly for subdued colors like black, brown, and dark blue while Jonghyun felt attracted to an emerald sweater he instantly thought would fit Minho’s complexion quite nicely and picked it up in a size he assumed would fit Minho.  
  
“Oh, that’s a nice color,” Minho commented on the sweater when he joined him a while later, carrying three jeans, two pairs of pants and a few T-shirts on his arm.  
  
“I think I should try these on.” He lifted his arm. “Will you join me?”  
  
“I think I will wait here,” Jonghyun replied, wanting to hand Minho the sweater he chose for him when the other grabbed him by the elbow and started walking with certainty.  
  
“It gets lonely in these changing cubicles,” Minho explained and dragged a mildly protesting Jonghyun with him to the changing booths.  
  
“There is no need for me to be in here,” Jonghyun stammered, fearing the booth like a cat a transport box. His objection made Minho pout, and he whined a little, practically begging Jonghyun to come inside with him.  
  
“It’s way too small for two,” was the last thing he said before Minho gave him a little push and he stumbled inside the booth, the other following right after him.  
  
“But it’s way more fun like this.”  
  
Jonghyun had always considered Minho’s slightly pushy side very hot in the manhwa, oftentimes rereading certain scenes in which the other had been rather dominant, but being faced by it in real life felt a little overbearing. He wasn’t used to being this close to others anymore, having been single for so long. Without saying anything Minho began to undress in front of Jonghyun who tried to look anywhere but Minho which was a rather hard task because they were surrounded by mirrors. So even if he didn’t directly watch Minho dress down to his underwear, he still saw him standing half-naked in front of him, the sight automatically making him breathe a little harder. What a marvelous body.  
  
Minho tried on the sweater Jonghyun had chosen first, the green a perfect match for his tanned skin.  
  
“It looks good, doesn’t it? I like how soft it is. Feels nice,” Minho beamed, running his hand over the wool. “I would have never chosen this myself. That was a good call.”  
  
He reached for a pair of jeans next while Jonghyun backed into the hindmost corner to bring at least a little distance between them. It was odd to know that Minho liked him and that Jonghyun most definitely was attracted to him, but it still felt morally incorrect to act on these superficial feelings because they didn’t know each other. He had always frowned upon people who went to clubs only to end up in someone’s bed at the end of the night.  
  
Minho in front of him struggled a little with closing a pair of blue skinny jeans, the tight fit not leaving a lot to the imagination.  
  
“Okay – no – too tight. I feel like my dick and balls get strangled in these,” he explained, but took a look at the jeans through the mirror, lifting the sweater a bit. “But I’ve got a very good looking ass in them.”  
  
He had, Jonghyun agreed in his head and watched as Minho struggled to get out of the pair of jeans again. His pulse went up and down like crazy for the next few minutes as he was doomed to be Minho’s silent observer and was faced with way more skin than he would have cared for at this time of day. Maybe Minho had wanted him to suffer in silence, wanted to make his mouth water, wanted to speed up the process of them becoming closer. Whatever it was, Jonghyun was relieved when they finally exited the cubicle with Minho carrying a few items he wanted to keep.  
  
“Underwear.”  
  
Minho suddenly announced on their way to the cash register.  
  
“What about it?”  
  
“I need some. Sharing underwear is kind of gross, don’t you think?” he inquired and looked around to find the underwear section. When he found it, he casually grabbed for Jonghyun’s hand as if this was the most natural thing to do, and pulled him with him, Jonghyun once again a little overwhelmed by the obvious display of affection. He wasn’t used to holding hands in public places not even with past partners. The action felt strangely intimate.  
  
“What kind of underwear do you like to wear and see someone else wear?” Minho asked frankly when they entered the underwear section, dozens of different models and colors presented in front of them. The question made Jonghyun feel sheepish, and he realized how freaking immature he was for a guy his age. They were just talking about underwear, and he wasn’t supposed to act like a pubescent teenager anymore who was embarrassed by anything that had to do with the human body.  
  
“I don’t know,” he answered, faltering. He had never really thought about men’s underwear.  
  
Minho didn’t seem to believe him because he looked at him skeptically and grabbed three different looking pair of briefs from a table in front of them to hold up in front of Jonghyun’s face.  
  
“You are lying. Everyone has a preference unless they go commando I guess,” he clarified and pulled at one of the briefs in his hands. “Classical briefs that highlight one’s junk, boxer briefs that support someone’s balls quite nicely, or for example boxer shorts for the people who like a fresh breeze.”  
  
“I like to wear boxer briefs the most, but I never cared about what a person I like wears. As long as the underwear isn’t full of holes from being worn for years, I’m fine with anything,” Jonghyun shrugged, trying to be a little bit more nonchalant around Minho.  
  
“How about a thong then?”  
  
An immediate “Ha, got you!” fell from Minho’s lips when Jonghyun pulled a disgruntled face at the mention of a thong. “So you are not into thongs I presume.”  
  
Jonghyun nodded half-heartedly. “Yeah, no – thongs always make me laugh. They look ridiculous. I guess shorter boxer briefs look kind of hot, but boxer shorts can be cute, too. It depends. As long as the person is comfortable, it’s all good.”  
  
“So diplomatic. Boxer briefs it is then,” he announced ceremonially and held the winner up in the air as if anyone around them would even care about his choice in underwear. He grabbed three sets in his size then, each one consisting of three boxer briefs in different colors - black, white, and dark blue.  
  
“I would invite you to lunch as a thank you, but I would need to dance to pay for our food,” Minho looked apologetic when they exited the clothing store a little later.  
  
“I would like to see that actually,” Jonghyun quipped, giggling behind one hand when Minho gave his shoulder another little nudge.  
  
“I’m sure you would.”


	7. Vol. 2 – Chapter 4: Couches and Blankets

**Vol. 2 – Chapter 4**

**Couches and Blankets**

  
Jonghyun sat on the couch, huddled up in a blanket with a manhwa in his hands while Minho hung up his freshly washed and newly bought clothes. He had given up on wearing the sweatpants he had stolen from the other’s closet and stood in front of the drying rack in just his boxer shorts and Jonghyun’s hoodie.  
  
Occasionally, Jonghyun glanced at Minho from behind his manhwa, his eyes clinging to his legs until Minho looked back at him and he would feel caught and averted his eyes with hot ears immediately. They had gone grocery shopping after having lunch at the mall, and Minho had cooked for them in the evening, a simple meal consisting of rice and several side dishes. It was a welcome change for Jonghyun who was used to feed on instant meals he bought at convenience stores because he was too lazy to cook for himself after getting off from work every night.  
  
There was still this nagging feeling inside of him that made him believe that all this was just a dream, but how long could a dream possibly last? Jonghyun wasn’t even a heavy sleeper, usually waking up several times at night, so having such a lucid dream felt impossible. He had used Naver while Minho had gone downstairs to the laundry room and had searched for ‘Christmas Miracles’ and ‘Santa Nikola’, but had only found sappy fictional love stories for the first search words and had got no results for the second one. There were a million and one stories about people who talked about their alleged alien abduction stories online, but apparently, he was the only one in this entire world who had been faced with a manhwa character coming to life and showing up in his apartment one morning.  
  
“What are you reading?” Minho asked after he had finished hanging up the last piece of underwear. Jonghyun held up the cover for the other to see when he came closer, Minho humming softly as he came to a halt in front of the couch.  
  
“May I sit next to you?” he asked unusually polite, and Jonghyun hurriedly moved his legs away to give Minho some space. He felt way too close when Minho sat down next to Jonghyun and reached out to cover his legs with the other’s blanket, their knees touching.  
  
Letting his head sink against the back of the couch, Minho sighed contently. “This feels nice.”  
  
Not knowing what to say Jonghyun faintly nodded and stared at a page he hadn’t flipped in the past five minutes.  
  
“You look tensed,” Minho stated the obvious as he turned towards Jonghyun, and reached out to take the manhwa out of his hands and place it onto the table in front of them.  
  
“I’m not used to being this close to people I don’t know, that’s all.”  
  
A soft chuckle. “You call that close?” Minho asked and skidded even closer, placing his head onto Jonghyun’s shoulder which only achieved that Jonghyun felt even more tensed. “That’s kind of close.”  
  
“Too close probably,” Jonghyun sputtered.  
  
“There is not a too close in my book. I could also be sitting in your lap right now or you in mine. That’s the kind of closeness I’d find appropriate and the kind of closeness I like.”  
  
The ridiculousness of that comment made Jonghyun snort and he looked down at Minho’s head, evaluating what else to say. He had spent days in school as a teenager with daydreaming about snuggling on a couch with Choi Minho and what other things he would like to do with him, but fantasizing about it and executing it were two very different things. How did people act when their wet dream became a reality in front of their eyes?  
  
“It’s kind of funny to think about,” Jonghyun thought out loud, startled when Minho countered with “What’s funny to think about?”  
  
“You made me realize I was gay,” he admitted truthfully, conjuring a smile on Minho’s face.  
  
“Was I?”  
  
“Yeah – until that point in my life I just thought I might still be too young to fancy girls, but when I read about your first hook up with Byungho things suddenly made sense to me. That was quite a revelation,” Jonghyun recalled, remembering embarrassedly that he had jerked off to that scene more often than he would ever admit to anyone.  
  
“That’s somewhat weird to hear, but I’m glad that this manhwa helped you to understand yourself better.”  
  
Minho sent a warm smile his way which Jonghyun reciprocated for once.  
  
“Yeah,” he said silently and let his head sink against the back of the couch as well, looking towards the TV.  
  
“I really like your hair. It’s pretty,” Minho expressed himself out of nowhere and reached out to comb his fingers through Jonghyun’s hair who just sat there, not knowing what to do. He had always liked it when people played with his hair but weren’t the two of them progressing way too fast? Maybe he was already under Minho’s spell without realizing it. He leaned into the touch unconsciously and closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the subtle sensation running along his scalp, his reaction making the other chuckle kindly.  
  
“Like a puppy,” Minho commented on Jonghyun’s behavior and gave the spot behind his ear a little scratch before he pulled his hand away again, leaving Jonghyun a little flustered.  
  
The two of them spent the rest of the night watching TV, Minho being fascinated by Netflix which in his reality hadn’t existed yet. In general, he had been fascinated by all the technological advancements, the fast internet connection, and the smartphones. But he had got a hang of them quite quickly, seeing Jonghyun’s mobile phone as a very intelligent Gameboy which not only allowed him to play Pokémon games but talk to other people as well.  
  
Around midnight Jonghyun stretched with a long yawn and got up from the couch, deciding that it was best to finally go to bed.  
  
“Don’t stay up for too long,” he told Minho in a warm voice and climbed up to his bed.  
  
“You know, we could also share your bed,” Minho called after him and paused the game he was playing on Jonghyun’s phone.  
  
Jonghyun looked down into the living room when he had settled down into his bed, replying: “Yeah, we could – but we won’t.”  
  
“But I like to cuddle before falling asleep.”  
  
“Cuddle with the blanket then,” Jonghyun answered quickly and turned onto his back, trying to get more comfortable.  
  
“I’d rather cuddle with you though.”  
  
It were those simple sentences that always caught Jonghyun off guard and made him flush, making it hard for him to respond anything.  
  
“Good night now,” he stated loudly and clearly, trying to make it as obvious as possible that it was too late and Jonghyun was too tired for Minho’s little mind games. He knew how well the other was with words, had clutched his heart way too often while reading the manhwa, had even forced Kibum to read certain parts aloud with him from time to time because that’s how good and natural Minho’s flirting game was.  
  
The words “Sleep tight,” were the only ones he heard afterward before there was some rustling and then absolute silence.


	8. Vol. 3 – Chapter 1: Scrutinizing Questions

**Vol. 3 – Chapter 1**

**Scrutinizing Questions**

“So – wait – you two met where once again?”  
  
Kibum knew Jonghyun was lying, he was quite sure of it. His friend had a talent for picking up on his lies right away. He was like a human lie detector. But what was Jonghyun supposed to do instead of lying? Who on earth would believe him that Minho had shown up in his apartment one morning in just a pair of boxer shorts? Kibum would laugh at him, and call him crazy, and Jonghyun wouldn’t even be able to blame him for it. After all, he had thought of himself as having gone mad for the longest time.  
  
“We were a match on Tinder,” Jonghyun repeated, trying not to let his poker face fall apart under Kibum’s scrutinizing gaze. He was like a fox; witty and clever and always a step ahead. However, there wasn’t anything Kibum could have question about Jonghyun meeting Minho on Tinder. It was the 21st century, most people met their dates online these days. There was absolutely nothing unusual about it.  
  
Kibum hummed mysteriously. “I thought you had deleted your account after your last disaster date with that creep.”  
  
“I made a new account over Christmas. I wanted to give it one last shot,” he replied quickly. Maybe a little too quickly because Kibum looked at him a little too long for comfort.  
  
A feeling of relief washed over him when Kibum finally let it go and moved his eyes back to Jonghyun’s phone screen which showed a photo of Minho making pancakes, tousled morning hair, but a smile so cute that it was hard to resist.  
  
Kibum zoomed in on his face as he sipped his coffee and was silent for a while. The coffee shop they had met had opened just recently, the interior looking industrial and like something Instagram influencers would use as a backdrop for their newest post.  
  
“Isn’t it weird that his name is Choi Minho and he’s an elementary teacher as well? I mean what are the odds of that happening,” he questioned openly then as he swiped forward to the next photo which showed Minho sleeping on the couch. Jonghyun hectically reached out to grab his phone, slightly embarrassed that Kibum had seen a photo he had taken secretly of the other.  
  
“Yeah, it’s pretty weird. But maybe it’s a sign,” Jonghyun tried to dodge the bullet, stuffing his phone back into his jacket.  
  
“He’s cute –,” Kibum commented finally, but Jonghyun could already hear the but in his voice, waiting for it to come out. Receiving Kibum’s approval had always been a challenge. He was a nit-picker, always looking for flaws, and things that didn’t completely add up.  
  
“But why are you letting him stay at your apartment? You’ve known each other for what? Not even a week yet?”  
  
There it was. The But. Luckily, Jonghyun knew Kibum well enough to have an answer prepared and ready for all possible buts he could have this time.  
  
“There is some sanitary work going on in his apartment and I just offered some help,” he shrugged, spinning a cobweb of lies.  
  
Kibum frowned skeptically. “And you – a person he has just met – on the internet – is the only one he can stay at? No friends, family, anything?”  
  
“He has only recently moved here.” Which wasn’t even a lie for once. “So he doesn’t have family here and no friends yet.”  
  
“I see.” Kibum acknowledged, taking another sip from his coffee, looking like a detective who tried solving crime in his brown trench coat.  
  
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s fantastic that you’ve met someone you’ve obviously been smitten by, but that’s – well – so not you? You like your privacy and your peace and quietness. Letting a stranger stay at your apartment seems so not like you.”  
  
Kibum was right about that. There was no denying it, but Jonghyun couldn’t say that without blowing his cover.  
  
“I mean have you looked at him?” Jonghyun asked with big eyes. “How can I not help out someone as good-looking as him?” he added and picked up his Vanilla Latte.  
  
There was an understanding nod before Kibum crossed his legs. “So I presume he’s good in bed?”  
  
Snorting into his cup, Jonghyun almost chocked on his beverage, coughing loudly with a crimson head.  
  
“We didn’t have sex. We haven’t even kissed,” he stammered and knocked onto his chest to catch his breath again, Kibum looking at him visibly astonished.  
  
“You are letting him stay at your place and you aren’t even getting sexy times in return? That doesn’t sound like a good deal to me,” he noted with a little pout, lifting one eyebrow.  
  
“He’s not a hooker, Kibum.”  
  
Kibum rose his hands in defense. “I’ve never said he was. But you seem into him, and if he cooks meals for you – I mean – that means that he wants to get into your pants as well. So what’s the big deal?” There was a nonchalant shrug. “Usually you aren’t that prude. Imagine you fall head over heels for him and then it turns out the sex is bad – and I mean really bad. That would be an absolute disaster.”  
  
For a second Jonghyun saw all the sex scenes with Minho from ‘Perfect 10’ flashing up in front of his eyes, and remembered how hot all of them were, so he doubted that sex with real Minho would be bad in any way, but he couldn’t possibly tell that Kibum.  
  
“Not everyone acts like an incubus who feeds on the sexual energy of others,” Jonghyun joked which resulted in Kibum winking at him in return.  
  
“What can I do? It’s not my fault that I enjoy sex so much. I need it in my life just like oxygen. Life is not possible for me without it,” Kibum said theatrically.  
  
“Man, you are so dramatic.”  
  
The two of them laughed until Kibum became serious again, putting on his securitizing detective face.  
  
“Where does he sleep though?”  
  
“On my couch.”  
  
“So you are not even getting good night snuggles? That’s scandalous. Those arms look like they would give a good snuggle experience. Hugging Jinki at night and falling asleep in his arms is like the best. You are clearly missing out.” Kibum looked almost appalled and shook his head.  
  
“Since when are you a night snuggler? I remember you throwing out your one-night-stands after you were finished with them when we were still in university.”  
  
“Get yourself a man like Jinki and you automatically become a softie. I didn’t choose the snuggle life, the snuggle life chose me,” he admitted, his tone automatically turning softer. That always happened when Jinki came up in their conversation. According to Kibum, Jinki was the best person to exist on planet earth and no other living human being could come even close to his perfection. Those were Kibum’s words, not Jonghyun’s. When it was still just the two of them Jonghyun had been sure that he would be the first person Kibum would rescue from a burning house, but ever since Jinki had shown up in Kibum’s life two years ago that wasn’t the case anymore. Jonghyun had to settle for second place even if that meant that he would be left behind in a fire. That fact had been hard to accept for him in the beginning because Jonghyun and Kibum had been inseparable for years, and he had utterly despised Jinki at first without even having met him once, but his feelings had changed, and with time he had realized what a good influence Jinki was and how happy he made Kibum.  
  
“We’ll see I guess. Maybe I will give it a try eventually and indulge in the snuggle life.”


	9. Vol. 3 – Chapter 2: The Kimbap Incident

**Vol. 3 – Chapter 2**

**The Kimbap Incident**

“Information technology department of Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation, Kim Jonghyun speaking. How may I help you?” Jonghyun answered what felt like the 20th phone call for the day after there had been a malfunction of several trains on one of the busiest lines in Seoul and everyone thought that the IT department was the right one to call for help. There was a woman on the line requesting a ticket refund, and Jonghyun tried to tell her as calmly as possible that she had called the wrong department and connected her with the company’s service department instead.  
  
After ending the call he sank back into his swivel chair and took off his glasses for a moment to rub his eyes. The five colleagues he shared the office with looked just as exhausted and annoyed as he did, one of them having taken a small break to take a smoke outside. A quick look at the clock hanging on the wall told him that there would at least be a lunch break in half an hour, his body and mind in desperate need of some carbs.  
  
He put his glasses back on and was about to go back to a file he had been working on when there was a knock on the glass, all the workers’ heads immediately turning to the office’s door. Jonghyun’s eyes widened immediately when he noticed Minho standing on the other side of the door, waving at him and holding a lunch box in his hand.  
  
“Oh, someone got a hot boyfriend here,” one of Jonghyun’s colleagues commented while Jonghyun just wanted to slide beneath the table in embarrassment and hide. There was absolutely no reason for Minho to be here, and yet he was there, wearing the formal looking outfit they had bought at the mall; a white dress shirt, dark blue well-sitting pants, a blue tie, and leather shoes.  
  
“How can I help you?” one of his colleagues asked after opening the door for Minho, a slight blush creeping onto her cheeks when Minho bowed and smiled at her. It was relieving to know that he wasn’t the only one mesmerized by that smile.  
  
“Hello, I’m sorry to intrude. I just wanted to drop by to bring Jonghyun his lunch. I’m Minho,” he explained politely and bowed again, the woman getting even more flustered while Jonghyun sunk deeper and deeper into his chair after noticing that his colleagues were looking at him now. Jonghyun was known as the secretive guy at work no one knew anything about. That had worked for the past three years, but now Minho would destroy that image with a single visit.  
  
“Sure, he’s right over there.”  
  
She pointed gratuitously into his direction as if Minho hadn’t already spotted him from outside his office and let him in, Minho bowing to her again before strutting towards Jonghyun with a grin.  
  
“Hello everyone, my name is Choi Minho. I’m Jonghyun’s boyfriend. It’s nice to meet you all,” he introduced himself, the word boyfriend making Jonghyun want to die on the spot. He immediately wanted to clarify the situation by telling everyone that Minho was most definitely not his boyfriend but letting them think he was would possibly save him from declining his colleagues’ offers to set him up with women in the future.   
  
Jonghyun’s colleagues nodded politely while looking mildly confused, looking back and forth between Minho and Jonghyun as if they were animals in a zoo. Minho didn’t quite read the atmosphere right and only smiled at all of them, Jonghyun excusing himself gushingly before grabbing Minho’s elbow and pulling him to the neighboring office kitchen.  
  
“What are you doing here?” he hissed lowly after he had closed the door behind them, Minho innocently holding up the cutely wrapped lunch box.  
  
“I’ve made Kimbap for you this morning and thought I should drop by to give it to you,” he explained as he unwrapped the lunch box on the counter occupied by a coffee machine and empty cups. Jonghyun’s shoulders slouched a little and he suddenly felt bad for having reacted so cold towards Minho when he had only wanted to be nice.  
  
“That’s sweet of you, thank you,” he tried to sound composed, hands folded in front of his lap. “It’s just – no one knows that I’m gay here.”  
  
Minho looked at him as if he hadn’t understood the words coming from his mouth. “No one knows that you’re gay? Why’s that?”  
  
Taking a deep breath, Jonghyun pushed his glasses up his nose, pondering. “It’s – you know. This reality is different. I know in your version of Seoul same-sex relationships are completely accepted and seen as normal, but –,” he paused for a second. “Here it’s not. It’s not as bad as it used to be, but – still – sadly, I still have to be careful whom I talk to about my sexuality. Do you understand that?”  
  
Minho looked lost for a moment but then he nodded, even though Jonghyun wasn’t quite sure if he understood what he had just said. One of the reasons why Jonghyun had felt so drawn to the manhwa ‘Perfect 10’ was its acceptance of different forms of relationships, of people. No one was frowned up, no one was stigmatized, everyone was allowed to be whoever they wanted to be, were able to love whoever they wanted to love without having to fear ostracism or worse. It had been utopian dream Jonghyun had always wished to become a reality.  
  
“Want to try one? It’s spicy tuna.” Minho held up a piece of neatly cut Kimbap with a pair of chopsticks, holding his free hand underneath it while turning towards Jonghyun. Jonghyun didn’t have much chance to say no as Minho was already imitating airplane sounds and flying the piece of Kimbap towards his mouth.  
  
“Say ah,” Minho said as if he was talking to a kid and Jonghyun wasn’t sure if he should roll his eyes at the other or laugh at his antics. He decided to just follow Minho’s instructions instead and ate the piece of Kimbap in one bite, the mix of vegetables and the spicy tuna savory and deliciously melting in his mouth. He gave Minho a thumbs up and murmured “Delicious” with a full mouth which made Minho’s face light up instantly.  
  
“I’m glad to hear that.” He said and picked up a Kimbap piece for himself. While the two of them munched on some Kimbap, Jonghyun took a proper look at his housemate. It was unusual to see him dressed up like that.  
  
“Are you going on a date or why are you so fancy looking?” he mumbled, and grabbed another piece of Kimbap with his fingers, ignoring the fact that it wasn’t his lunch break yet.  
  
“The elementary school near your apartment called earlier this morning and told me I could stop by for an interview in the afternoon. They are looking for a substitute teacher. That’s why I’m dressed like this. I look good, don’t I?” Minho grinned, smoothening his tie.  
  
“That’s great news. Then you will finally be able to pay me back!” Jonghyun poked the other’s shoulder excitedly, but only earned a poke in return.  
  
“I don’t even have the job yet so I’m still your sugar baby,” Minho quipped and performed a little happy dance in front of Jonghyun before he pulled his phone out of his pocket. It was Jonghyun’s old one; a little scratched and used looking, but still working fine.  
  
“I need to get going. I’ll see you tonight,” he hastily said and before Jonghyun knew what was happening, Minho leaned down and pressed a soft, little kiss to his cheek, Jonghyun’s face instantly heating up. There was no time to say anything as Minho had already walked out of the door, and all Jonghyun could hear Minho say to his colleagues was “I’m very sorry for any misunderstandings. I didn’t grow up here and sometimes mix up words. I’m Jonghyun’s housemate, not boyfriend. I sincerely apologize if my incompetence has caused any confusion. Have a nice day!” before he disappeared through the office door.  
  
Jonghyun stayed back in the little kitchen for a little longer, not able to keep his face in check as he began to smile uncontrollably, munching on another piece of Kimbap. Choi Minho was certainly something else.


	10. Vol. 3 – Chapter 3: Congratulations

**Vol. 3 – Chapter 3**

**Congratulations**

When Jonghyun came home that night, Minho greeted him with two glasses of sparkling wine like an excited puppy who was happy that their owner was back.  
  
“They hired me on the spot. I will start next week,” he exclaimed, bobbing up and down eagerly on the balls of his feet. Jonghyun who had been tired and exhausted from work felt energized by the other’s eagerness and smiled brightly as he slipped out of his shoes.   
  
“Those are great news. Congratulations.”  
  
He came inside and dropped his briefcase next to the fridge before he unfastened the tie around his neck and thanked Minho for the glass of sparkling wine he handed him.  
  
“I’ve missed working with kids so much. I’m looking forward to getting back to school. I felt so useless the past few days,” he admitted with a sigh and bumped glasses with Jonghyun.  
  
Jonghyun smiled. “I’m happy for you.”  
  
“Because you will get your money back?” Minho probed immediately, swaying a little when Jonghyun poked him in the ribs.  
  
“No, I’m happy because I know that you like your job.”  
  
Minho beamed gratefully. “Thank you.”  
  
They looked a moment at each other before Minho let out a sound as if he had just remembered something.  
  
“I’ve cooked Korean-style curry rice. I hope it will taste okay. I’ve looked the recipe up online. Did you know that they also have websites just for cooking recipes these days? It’s amazing,” Minho babbled, Jonghyun finding his childlike enthusiasm adorable. Minho had changed into a simple black T-shirt and jeans since the last time Jonghyun had seen him during lunch, the jeans giving his butt a nice shape he noticed when Minho walked over to the couch.  
  
“I’ll be right with you. I’m just going to change into something more comfortable,” he explained and grabbed some loose shorts and a white T-shirt from his built-in wardrobe before he disappeared into the bathroom and got changed. Ever since Minho had shown up at his workplace to bring him lunch he couldn’t stop thinking about it. It had been such a sweet and genuine gesture even if Jonghyun hadn’t seen it as such right away. He felt apologetic towards Minho.  
  
Minho had already started eating dinner when Jonghyun came back into the living room, and let him know that the curry was safe to eat and not poisonous. They sat next to each other in silence for a while, eating their dinner and sipping sparkling wine while watching the news on TV, a scenario so normal that it seemed unexciting at first glance. But Jonghyun enjoyed the normality of it, how natural it felt to spend time with Minho at this point, how seamlessly he had become a part of his everyday life. He had only been with him for a couple of days, but as hard as Jonghyun tried to remember, he couldn’t recall how he had spent his evenings after work before Minho had entered his life. There was a mutual understanding, a sense of belonging. Maybe this was one of the few alterations ‘Santa Nikola’ had made to Minho. Maybe she knew what type of man Jonghyun was and had, therefore, tried her best to incorporate Minho into his life without making it feel like he was foreign, or not belonging here.  
  
“I’m sorry that I was being so weird earlier today. It was really sweet of you to bring me lunch.”  
  
Jonghyun looked up from his plate for a moment to glance at Minho who shook his head at him in return.  
  
“It’s okay. I understand. I should have called before coming to your working place unannounced. I’m sorry about that.”  
  
“There’s no need to really. I’ve never had better lunch,” Jonghyun complimented him which caused Minho to sit a little straighter, his chest swelling up with what looked like pride.  
  
“That makes me happy.”  
  
“Also, thank you for saying what you did when you left. It wasn’t necessary, but I still appreciate it. Really,” Jonghyun added to get the things that had been on his mind all day off his chest one by one. It felt good to talk so openly about his feelings, and it was so easy to talk about them with Minho.  
  
“I didn’t want to make it weird for you at work. I mean, I probably did just by showing up, but at least – I didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable at work, you know. It wasn’t my place to talk for you like that, so I tried to make things right again. I don’t know if I was successful though. Did anyone ask you weird questions afterward?” Minho wanted to know and scraped up the last spoon of curry from his plate.  
  
Jonghyun shook his head. “No, but one of my colleagues asked me for your number,” he chuckled and made Minho laugh as well.  
  
“Then I’m relieved,” Minho smirked and put the last bit of curry into his mouth.   
  
They had developed their usual evening routine by now, watching TV until midnight before Jonghyun would disappear into his bed. But this night Jonghyun hesitated, thinking about the day, and remembering his best friend’s words. The notion of having his dream man in his life still scared Jonghyun because he wasn’t even sure if Minho stayed forever. What if such a Christmas miracle only lasted a couple of weeks before he would wake up one morning with Minho and all his belongings gone again, leaving him behind? That thought frightened him, but he also didn’t want this opportunity to go to waste. Maybe having a goodnight snuggle was something to go for. It was innocent enough.  
  
“Hey, I was thinking –, “ he began carefully to get Minho’s attention who was busy catching Pokémon again, another thing which had sneaked into their evening routine. When Minho looked over at him curiously, Jonghyun began to fumble with the blanket lying on top of him.  
  
“I was just thinking – if you want to sleep in my bed tonight – well – you can – if you want to,” Jonghyun sputtered a little inelegantly and looked down at his fingers.  
  
“Of course I want to,” Minho replied without a wink of hesitation and put his phone away in an instant. “I’d love to,” he added insistently.  
  
“Great,” Jonghyun nodded a little bashfully and got up, making his way up to his bed. “But just to let you know. I’m talking about sleeping. No funny business.”  
  
He felt that it was important for him to address that because he didn’t want Minho to get the wrong idea. Jonghyun was here for snuggling. For snuggling only. At least that’s what he told himself over and over again when Minho turned off the TV and followed him upstairs.  
  
“You make it seem like I’m some horn-dog,” Minho dead-panned, and duck his head before sitting down next to Jonghyun on the mattress.  
  
“I know you can be,” Jonghyun pointed out, and discreetly looked away when Minho took off his jeans by lying down and followed that up by pulling his T-shirt over his head.  
  
“Are you never horny then?”  
  
That question caught Jonghyun off guard and he wanted to reply with a persistent ‘No’ but was aware that both of them knew that would be a lie and therefore didn’t dare to say it.   
  
“I think people who experience sexual attraction in some way all feel horny from time to time, but now is definitely not the time for it,” he tried to explain, putting a lot of emphasis on the latter part.  
  
Minho snickered and slipped underneath the bed covers. “I got it, I got it. Sleeping and no funny business. Yo comprendo.”  
  
He gave Jonghyun an ‘okay’ sign before lying down on his back, placing both his hands above the blanket modestly while keeping a safe distance between himself and Jonghyun’s body. But unfortunately, that wasn’t what Jonghyun had had in mind either when he had suggested for Minho to sleep in his bed, so he lay next to Minho for a while, gnawing on his bottom lip, not sure what to do. In the end, he decided to be proactive and skidded closer to Minho’s body. He placed one of Minho’s arms around himself before snuggling up to him, nestling his head onto the other’s chest which made it possible for him to hear the other’s heartbeat; a strong and steady thumping.  
  
“That doesn’t count as funny business?” Minho asked, Jonghyun able to pick out the smug tone in his voice.  
  
“No, that’s just goodnight snuggling,” he clarified, feeling the vibration of Minho’s laugh through his chest. Minho smelled nice, a comfortable, homey smell that Jonghyun could easily get used to, and he also felt nice, his skin way softer than he had imagined it to be.  
  
“Not to break your bubble, Jonghyun, but what you are doing right now isn’t the correct way of snuggling,” Minho began to speak like a professor who was about to debunk a globally accepted theory.  
  
“What am I doing then if not snuggling?” Jonghyun asked mildly confused.  
  
“You are using me as a pillow. Snuggling is something both parties should actively participate in.”  
  
Jonghyun was quite sure that Minho was aware of the nonsense he said, but it made him smile, so he let it pass, and went along with it, moving away a bit to take a look at Minho’s face.  
  
“What do you suggest us doing then, oh you master of snugglers? Please enlighten me and share your wisdom,” he teased.  
  
“Well, first of all – we should face each other,” Minho suggested in a low voice and turned onto his side so he could face Jonghyun who followed suit. “Next – “ he reached out and grabbed Jonghyun by the hips to pull him closer. “Our bodies should be touching.”  
  
This already felt way more intimate than Jonghyun snuggling up against Minho’s arm had felt, and Jonghyun was glad that it was dark enough so the other wasn’t able to see him blushing.  
  
“And then you are placing one of your arms here,” Minho described further and pulled Jonghyun’s arm over his hip. “And I do the same.”  
  
“And if you want to, you can place your head into the crook of my neck now. Done. The perfect snuggle position accomplished.”  
  
Somehow it felt like they had just finished building an IKEA shelf, their limbs entangled, and Jonghyun’s head resting against Minho’s collarbone. Despite it feeling nice, Jonghyun knew right away that it would be impossible for him to fall asleep like that, the arm beneath his body already feeling numb, and the air he breathed in warm and stuffy.  
  
“I liked it more when I used you as a pillow,” he admitted sheepishly, a waft of air touching his hair when Minho began to chuckle.  
  
“But this is so nice. I can smell your hair and touch your skin. It feels comfortable, doesn’t it?” Minho questioned while Jonghyun tried to make himself a little room.  
  
“I feel like I’m suffocating,” Jonghyun confessed, and wiggled his way out of Minho’s embrace, breathing in deeply when he was finally free. Maybe he wasn’t into snuggling after all.  
  
“I’m a restless sleeper and change my sleeping position about thirty times before falling asleep. Lying like this makes me feel claustrophobic, that’s all. Sorry about that.”  
  
Jonghyun sat up for a moment, feeling hot and sweaty, something he didn’t like when he wanted to sleep.  
  
“Hey, no need to apologize. I’m just a big snuggle bear and like to have people as close as possible when sleeping, but if that makes you uncomfortable then we try something you are comfortable with. No big deal,” Minho reassured him patiently, using a tone that he most likely had used on upset elementary school students before.  
  
For a moment he envied Kibum again for being able to have deluxe goodnight snuggles while he already felt suffocated after spending mere seconds in someone’s arms, but he was sure that there was a way for him to enjoy a good snuggle – there had to be.  
  
“Shall we go back to you using me as a pillow?” Minho asked after a moment and turned onto his back. He stretched one of his arms out so Jonghyun could lie down again and then patted the crock of his arm with his hand. “I’m all yours, your personal pillow.”  
  
Jonghyun lay down again with a smile, and snuggled up into Minho’s arm, going back to the position he had previously be in with a sigh.  
  
“Thank you,” he whispered and closed his eyes as he concentrated on the steady beating of the other’s heart. Minho acknowledged him with a hum and proceeded to gently touch Jonghyun’s hair, the sensation slowly but surely lulling Jonghyun to sleep with a content grin on his face.


	11. Vol. 4 – Chapter 4:  Funny looking Ray

**Vol. 4 – Chapter 4**

**Funny looking Ray**

Jonghyun had been skeptical at first when Minho had wanted to take him out on a date in Jonghyun’s KIA a week after Minho had started working. But his doubts had been unfounded because Minho looked incredibly handsome in the driver’s seat, stylishly putting his arm over Jonghyun’s backrest when putting the car in reverse and guiding the car smoothly through traffic while letting his hand rest on Jonghyun’s knee.  
  
Their everyday life had changed ever since Minho had taken up his new job, the younger one having come back later than Jonghyun in the evening, usually being too tired to spend the night with him in front of the TV. The cut of having Minho constantly around to only seeing him very early and very late in the day had given Jonghyun a harder time than he had expected because it had made him realize that he had started to care about Minho and had developed a fondness for him that run deeper than his initial superficial attraction. He liked him as the person he was now and not as the person he used to be in a manhwa Jonghyun liked.   
  
They sang along to 90’s pop songs on the radio while Minho took them to a place he wanted to keep a secret, Jonghyun laughing in delight when Minho performed a drum solo in front of a red light.  
  
When they finally arrived, Jonghyun was surprised to see that Minho had brought them to the Coex Aquarium, the two of them getting in line at the entrance with dozens of other visitors. It was the first time Minho paid for anything, proudly pulling the Won bills out of his pocket to pay the cashier. Jonghyun hadn’t minded paying for Minho even if he hadn’t made it seem like it, but Minho seemed relieved to finally have his own money again without having to constantly ask Jonghyun for some coins.  
  
“I hope you like aquariums,” Minho stated a little cautiously when they walked up the stairs to the first area, the light around them decreasing when they entered a room with a lot of cylindrical tanks which reached from the top of the room to its bottom.  
  
Jonghyun who was instantly fascinated by all the colorful fishes shook his head. “No, that was a great idea. I often came here with my family when I was still a kid.”  
  
They slowly strolled from room to room, and Jonghyun took photos of all the fishes he considered either very pretty or extremely funny looking, chuckling whenever Minho tried to photobomb his photos by putting his face in front of Jonghyun’s photo lens. They spent the longest time in the deep blue sea tunnel, watching the fishes swim over their heads, both fascinated by the immense variety of sea life surrounding them.  
  
“This fella looks funny, doesn’t he?” Minho pointed at the ceiling with his head put back. Above him swam a massive ray, measuring at least 2m in length, its form making it look as if it was floating through the air.  
  
“His mouth looks like a very disappointed emoji,” he explained and imitated the ray’s expression.  
  
“Are those holes next to his mouth his nostrils?” Jonghyun asked, squinting.  
  
“Do rays have nostrils?” Minho responded with another question.  
  
Jonghyun shrugged. “I have seriously no idea.”  
  
“Me neither.”  
  
They laughed at each other before moving on, Minho casually finding Jonghyun’s hand with his when he passed him. Their fingers interlocked naturally, Jonghyun’s fingertips bending to find the back of Minho’s hand, pressing into his skin. The two of them holding hands during the daytime had gradually developed from them holding hands during the night. It made Jonghyun feel more connected though it had freaked him out at first when Minho had grabbed his hand while the two of them had gone out grocery shopping. With every passing day, he tried to ease himself more into his current situation, and accept the fact that Minho showing up in his life – no matter what had initially brought him to Jonghyun – had been a gift. He felt happiness again, a feeling he hadn’t experienced for way too long.  
  
They took a break in the blue longue, an area in the center of the aquarium with food stands and gift shops, the area located inside a massive tank, sharks, rays and other fishes swimming along the glass while the visitors had a little snack. They sat down on a bench close to the glass wall separating them from tons of water and fishes, both munching away on some Bungeoppang.   
  
“Isn’t it kind of macabre that we are eating fish-shaped snacks in front of fish?” Jonghyun considered in thought, watching a beautiful whale shark pass right in front of their eyes. They were huge animals, bigger than all the other residents in the aquarium.  
  
“I mean it’s batter filled with red bean paste. I think they are safe from us,” Minho answered him rationally, taking a big bite from his little baked fish. Jonghyun hummed, not completely convinced.  
  
“Imagine that the fish we see have paid to see us, and we are just sitting in a homosapium, being watched by the fish, and in an area, we can’t see, they have snacks formed like humans.”   
  
That theory made Minho laugh and he leaned closer and put his arm around Jonghyun, affectionately tousling his hair.  
  
“You are seriously the cutest. Your mind amazes me,” he snickered and bumped their heads gently together, Jonghyun’s heart making a little jump. Their faces so close to each other always made Jonghyun a little too excited because he still waited for Minho to kiss him. Except for the fleeting kiss on his cheek when Minho had visited him at work, and little good night kisses on the head when Jonghyun snuggled up against his chest at night, the other hadn’t dared to get near his mouth with his own. It was a little frustrating but had been Jonghyun’s fault. Being too passive and cautious in the beginning, he paid the price for it now.  
  
He had wanted to initiate their first kiss several times, but the timing had never been quite right. They were only talking about a kiss, nothing revolutionary, but Jonghyun wanted to remember it fondly, and not recall it later as a kiss in passing in front of a busy supermarket or something like that. Minho’s first kiss with Byungho had happened under an umbrella during a warm summer rain – so Jonghyun had to step up his game.  
  
They came home late that day because Minho had invited Jonghyun to dinner after their visit to the aquarium. Both were tired when they fell onto the couch in the living room, Jonghyun’s feet hurting from walking around all day.  
  
“I’ll wash up first,” Jonghyun called dibs on the shower and got up from the couch with a groan which made him sound like an old man. The laugh from Minho he received for his struggles in return, he stopped by kicking the other against the shin.  
  
“Now you are still laughing, but when you’re my age you won’t be laughing any longer,” he added and disappeared into the bathroom to take a quick shower. He didn’t even spend ten minutes in the bathroom before he came back outside, drying his wet hair with a towel. Minho had turned on the TV in the meantime, watching the news; his legs stretched out on the couch, and his head resting on the armrest. He had taken off his jeans already, lounging around in just his T-shirt and some underwear.  
  
“I hope you didn’t use up all the hot water,” Minho murmured into his direction before getting up.  
  
“My bad, I used all of it up. Every single drop,” he teased, Minho sticking out his tongue when he passed him on the way to the bathroom. He took off his T-shirt on the way, Jonghyun finding this little action unnecessary. No one needed to see broad shoulders, and a well-defined back at this time of the day.  
  
Taking a quick look at the clock he decided that it was a good time to go to bed already, so he threw the towel over a chair, grabbed his smartphone and climbed up the stairs to his bed, making himself comfortable while listening to water coming out of the showerhead in the bathroom. The apartment was badly soundproofed, Jonghyun hearing Minho turn off the shower, and brushing his teeth afterward.  
  
He had enjoyed the time he had spent with Minho. Doing something out of the ordinary had been nice for a change, and he could imagine making it a regular thing. Going on spontaneous dates on the weekends sounded like something he would look forward to. It was funny that less than a month ago he would have gagged at the thought of going on aquarium dates, but the Grinch in his head had quietened down, only rarely coming up to the surface these days.  
  
Checking his Instagram account he scrolled down an endless row of posts from people who paraded their relationship around, seeing it as their purpose to let the whole world know how happy they were with their partner. Jonghyun still considered such behavior questionable, but at least he didn’t roll his eyes at these kinds of posts any longer and didn’t go on petty blocking sprees. When Minho joined him in bed a few minutes later he was about to watch Kibum’s latest Instagram story updates, he, like so many others before him, parading his relationship around like a ringmaster.  
  
“What are you doing?” Minho asked, his almost naked body radiating heat from the recently taken shower, his tousled wet hair falling into his face.  
  
“Checking my friend’s Instagram story. He had dinner with his boyfriend – apparently,” Jonghyun explained as he watched a boomerang of two wine glasses clinking. Wanting to see the updates as well, Minho crawled beneath the blanket and skidded as close as possible, resting his head against Jonghyun’s shoulder, the other feeling wet hair press against his chin.  
  
“Kibum’s very pretty,” Minho said when a selfie popped up in the story, showing Kibum with a wine glass in his hand, sitting in front of a plate with a delicious looking steak on it. “Were you in love with him when the two of you were younger?”  
  
The question came as a surprise, but didn’t catch Jonghyun off guard completely since he had been asked the same question several times over the years – even Jinki had asked him the question once, probably after he had asked Kibum the same one.  
  
“Not really. I mean we were both gay, and it felt like it was us against the rest of the world most of the time, so we bonded over that quite a bit. But I can’t say that I was ever in love with him. We made out quite often during our last year of high-school though. We didn’t know any other gay kids, so having each other was good for experimenting around. But it never went beyond that. Just kissing, and jerking off next to each other, that’s all,” Jonghyun elaborated nonchalantly while Minho had taken the smartphone out of his hand to scroll through Kibum’s profile with his finger.  
  
“Do you know if he ever had feelings for you?” he asked, after a photo of Jonghyun with Kibum popped up, showing them on Kibum’s 24th birthday; Kibum sitting on Jonghyun’s lap, wearing a tiara, and throwing confetti around, and Jonghyun blowing into a party horn, both of them looking absolutely wasted. The caption read ‘Birthday party with the best boy in the world <3’.  
  
Jonghyun knew that the caption could be misinterpreted if someone didn’t know the story behind it, but in fact, Kibum had chosen the caption to flip off his ex-boyfriend who had broken up with him the day before because according to him Kibum was too much work and needed too much attention. Kibum had wanted to show him that he didn’t need him and that he was happy without him, but Jonghyun remembered the tears Kibum had cried after their friends had been gone and Kibum had sat on the floor, hugging the toilet, crying over his ex-boyfriend while vomiting.  
  
“Nah, he had a crush on the straightest guy in our school for years. It was pitiful to watch since he also joined the water skiing team just because that guy was the captain of it.”  
  
That comment made Minho chuckle lightly.  
  
“You two seem like you were a cool bunch of kids to hang out with,” he determined before he turned off Jonghyun’s phone and put it aside.  
  
“We are still a cool bunch of kids to hang out with,” Jonghyun clarified disdainfully, making the man lying on his chest chuckle again. The T-shirt he wore was wet where Minho had placed his head, but Jonghyun didn’t mind, liking how Minho’s hair smelled of the shampoo he used himself.  
  
“I had a really nice time today. Thanks for that,” Jonghyun spoke into the silence after a while, feeling how Minho moved a little next to him.  
  
“I had a nice time as well. I enjoy spending time with you.”  
  
Jonghyun smiled to himself, and something, somewhere deep in his mind told him that this might be the right moment. It wasn’t beneath an umbrella during a summer rain, but they were comfortably lying in bed after having spent some quality time together like two people who looked like an actual couple from the outside.  
  
With his heart rate going up, he plucked up his courage to skid a little lower, Minho’s head slipping down to his upper arm. Trying to breath evenly, he carefully reached out to feel Minho’s face in the dark, his fingers warily looking for the other’s lips.  
  
“What are you doing?” Minho snickered in a whisper tone when Jonghyun had found the corner of his mouth with his forefinger, but instead of simply answering him, he leaned forward to press the lightest of kisses to his lips. The first touch was subtle and delicate, almost hesitant, but to his astonishment Minho leaned right into it, reciprocating the kiss, deepening it. He was the one who opened his lips slightly, brushing them gently against Jonghyun’s, and eagerly waiting for a response. After Jonghyun had overcome the first hurdle, everything felt so easy all of a sudden, from brushing his hand through Minho’s wet hair to teasing his upper lip with the tip of his tongue. It felt right and perfect and so good, his heartbeat quickening when Minho’s hand slipped beneath his T-shirt to caress his side; hands warm, big, pleasant, and promising.   
  
When they finally let go of each other, Jonghyun was out of breath, his pulse racing and his body feeling hot.  
  
“What a nice surprise,” Minho whispered smugly and combed a few strands of hair behind Jonghyun’s ear.  
  
“It surely was.”  
  
Jonghyun held onto Minho’s hip, fingertips still pressed into the taut skin because he didn’t want to let go yet, wanted to relish the moment.   
  
“Do you want to kiss me again?” Minho asked after a moment to which Jonghyun only answered with “Yes, please,” before leaning forward to kiss Minho a second time with a smile on his lips.   



	12. Vol. 5 – Chapter 4: You got a Friend in Me

**Vol. 5 – Chapter 4**   
**You got a Friend in Me**

  
  
“He wants to meet you,” Jonghyun said one morning while getting ready for work, Minho standing in front of the sink to wash the dishes.  
  
“Who is he?”   
  
“Kibum,” came the quick answer before Jonghyun emptied his cup of coffee in a rush because he had overslept and was already late for work while Minho had a day off and was still dressed in nothing but his underwear. “He told me that it was about time and that I shouldn’t hide you forever.”   
  
Minho looked at him over his shoulder, frowning. “You are hiding me?”   
  
“No, I -,” Jonghyun paused for a moment as he closed his briefcase. “Kibum just tends to always ask a lot of questions. I didn’t want him to make you feel uncomfortable with unwanted attention.”  
  
“I’m a big boy. I can handle myself,” Minho replied, holding a purple dish scrubber into the air like a scepter.   
  
Checking Minho from head to toe Jonghyun agreed with a knowing hum. “You sure are.” He came up to Minho then and slung his arms around him from behind, cheek pressed against the other’s shoulder blade. Never in a million years would he have thought that hugging someone from behind would give him so much joy, but it did. Minho felt like a power socket and Jonghyun only needed to plug in to recharge.   
  
“Do you know when you will get back tonight?”   
  
“Like usual. Why?” Jonghyun murmured into Minho’s back, subtly sniffing him in hope that Minho wouldn’t notice.   
  
“Then invite Kibum over. His partner as well of course. I will cook something. Is there something they can’t eat? Allergies or something? Vegetarians? Vegans?”   
  
The latter questions made Jonghyun snort in amusement and he stepped away from Minho to lean against the kitchen counter instead.   
  
“Vegans? If we fried them a whole cow they would eat it. They both love meat, but Kibum despises carrots and Jinki doesn’t like cucumbers. But other than that, I’ve never seen them pass on any food.”   
  
Jonghyun watched in fascination as the muscles in Minho’s arms tensed up while he scrubbed the plates, a part of him wanting to reach out and grab the other’s biceps and test how taut his muscles were. Ever since their first kiss, living with Minho had become just a little more difficult for Jonghyun. Minho’s constant stretching with little vulgar sounding moans and his habit of taking off his clothes on the way to the bathroom instead of inside the bathroom had turned into pure agony. It felt like Minho was seducing him most unconventionally by presenting himself like some cheese in a mousetrap, only waiting for Jonghyun to finally give in and fall into his trap. It was exhausting to stay strong when the bait looked so tempting. But it just felt too rushed, too early. He wanted to prolong their little intimate dance, to make sure that this was the right thing to do. He wasn’t sure if Minho understood his concerns about them getting more intimate and how could he? He hadn’t been faced with his favorite manhwa character coming to life in his apartment, fulfilling all his deepest longings.   
  
“Carrots and cucumbers,” Minho noted understandingly. “I can work with that.”  
  
Jonghyun leaned a little closer to Minho and rested his chin on his upper arm.   
  
“There is no rush. We can also do it another time. You don’t have to cook. We can also go out to grab some beer in a bar.”  
  
“But I love cooking for people, and I want to meet your friends,” Minho insisted and pressed a little kiss to Jonghyun’s head before nudging him away. “Hurry up, you are late.”   
  
“I know,” Jonghyun whined theatrically and shuffled over to the chair to pick up his briefcase, Minho giving him a goodbye kiss before he slipped out of the door, the gesture making him feel oddly like a husband who left his wife for work in the morning.  
  
Kibum accepted Jonghyun’s dinner invitation gladly, so Jonghyun found himself passing nervously around the apartment at 7 pm, his hands sweaty while Minho was serenity personified as he stood in front of the stove wearing a dress shirt and a pair of jeans, and added black bean paste to his already fried mixture of small cut pork meat, radish, onions, and potatoes for the Jjajangmyeon he wanted to cook for dinner. He had told Jonghyun that he had chosen this specific dish because he had never met a single person who didn’t like noodles.   
  
“It will be fine, Jonghyun. I know how to handle people,” Minho smiled, one hand in his pocket as he swiveled the ingredients around in the frying pan with the other.   
  
Jonghyun rubbed his sweaty hands on his jeans, checking if they had put all the side dishes on the table already. He had borrowed two chairs from one of his neighbors for the evening because he wasn’t used to having dinner parties at his apartment. Usually, he was the one who was invited to eat dinner at someone else’s place because his cooking skills were just good enough to not let spaghetti burn in a water-filled pan.   
  
“I know that you are good with people. I’m sure you and Jinki will get along excellent. But whenever Kibum has met someone I’ve been seeing for a while in the past it felt like he was interrogating them,” Jonghyun voiced his worry and came over to Minho, watching as he added water into the frying pan.   
  
Minho smiled. “I have nothing to hide. I’ve never got a speeding ticket and didn’t even steal a lollipop at a store as a child. I’m innocent. Let him interrogate me. I don’t mind.”   
  
Before Jonghyun could reply to anything he heard the doorbell ring, his body instantly freezing up.   
  
“So it begins,” he sighed and was about to walk over to the door when Minho held him back by grabbing his wrist.  
  
“Wait a second,” he said and leaned forward to press a kiss to Jonghyun’s lips. “Everything will be fine, okay?”   
  
Jonghyun merely nodded and forced himself to a smile when the other grinned at him, his heart making a little flip in his chest. Kibum and Jinki brought a bottle of Italian wine as a small gift, both of them hugging Jonghyun before entering the apartment and slipping out of their shoes.  
  
“It smells nice in here,” Jinki commented, and smiled politely when he discovered Minho after entering the room.   
  
“That’s the pork meat,” Minho explained casually and put the spatula aside so he could walk up to Jinki and shake his hand. At first, Jinki seemed a little taken aback by the gesture, but then he took Minho’s hand and shook it. “I’m Minho. It’s nice to meet you.”   
  
“I’m Jinki. It’s lovely to finally meet the mysterious Choi Minho. Jonghyun has talked a lot about you,” Jinki smiled and Minho immediately looked over at Jonghyun with a grin.  
  
“He did?” he asked curiously and let go of Jinki’s hand.   
  
“Well, not to me – but Kibum. But that’s basically the same,” Jinki chuckled and held his head a little sheepishly.   
  
“I hope he only said nice things,” Minho beamed, his smile widening when Kibum made his way over to him, his posture elegant and every movement executed gracefully.   
  
“Wouldn’t it be kind of telling if he already told us bad stuff about you after the two of you have only known each other for such a short, little while?” Kibum questioned with a raised eyebrow and then extended his hand. “I’m Kibum, it’s nice to meet you Minho.”   
  
Dinner went better than Jonghyun had initially expected. The food was delicious and the conversations were nice, Minho answering the even most obscure questions coming from Kibum with wit and humor. Jonghyun was impressed by the other’s eloquence and so seemed Kibum who rather quickly went from interrogating Minho about his past, present, and future to having lighthearted conversations with him about cooking recipes.   
  
“Your Jjajangmyeon was really good, Minho,” Jinki complimented when Minho got up to clean up the table after everyone’s plate was empty.  
  
“Thank you,” Minho said respectfully and smiled like a kid who had just received a gold star for his homework. Jonghyun helped him to clean the table while Jinki and Kibum settled down on the couch, and opened the bottle of wine.  
  
“You are doing great,” Jonghyun whispered as they stood close to each other in front of the sink, Minho quickly bending down to give him a peck on the cheek.  
  
“I told you so,” Minho replied and gave him a little nudge with his hip which made Jonghyun snicker in amusement who was glad that things had gone so well.   
  
“I didn’t know you’ve tossed out all of your ‘Perfect 10’ manhwas,” Kibum noticed as he looked around, his legs crossed, and a wine glass in his hand.   
  
Feeling the tension from the beginning of the night come back, Jonghyun felt his ears turn hot and he glanced at Minho before he went back to the table and picked up the remaining plates and bowls.   
  
“Well, yeah – You told me to stop fantasizing about fictional characters, didn’t you? So I did just that,” Jonghyun explained as nonchalantly as he was capable of doing, not daring to look into Kibum’s eyes when he turned around to put the dirty dishes into the sink.   
  
“He can fantasize about me now,” Minho joked playfully to help Jonghyun out and rolled up his sleeves as he let the sink fill up with water.   
  
“I don’t know if you know this about Jonghyun already, but he has been obsessed with that one character in that manhwa ever since I’ve known him. How do you feel about having to compete with a fictional character?” Kibum asked interestedly and took a sip from his wine. Jonghyun considered it only to be fair that Kibum took the chance to embarrass him a little in front of Minho. After all, when Jonghyun had met Jinki for the first time Jonghyun had told him all the embarrassing stories he was sure Kibum would have never told him.   
  
“I’m actually feeling quite good about it. One could go as far as to say that we bonded over that manhwa. I used to read it too,” Minho answered and Jonghyun was impressed how easy it was for the other to mix the truth and a blatant lie in one sentence without even pausing for a second to think about it. That was a unique talent for sure.   
  
“You did?” Kibum looked rather surprised. “So Jack really found his other Jack, huh?”   
  
Kibum seemed to be at a loss for words which was quite unusual for him.   
  
“Did you also have the hots for Minho? I still find it funny that you two share the same name,” Jinki intervened, his smile unwavering. He was too nice for this world, always making sure that everyone felt comfortable, and he was so unlike everyone else Kibum had ever hooked up with. During their university days, Kibum had gone for the jocks, the silent muscular guys with no brain, but Jinki was the complete opposite of that. Maybe that was their secret.   
  
“Oh no, I was always team Byungho. Minho was way too sweet, wasn’t he? Way too nice and good-looking. I prefer someone with edges,” Minho replied and looked up from the sink into Jinki’s direction, Jonghyun who dried a plate with a towel next to him at the sink, having a hard time to not burst out laughing. Minho had given himself the biggest compliment without anyone – except for Jonghyun – even noticing.   
  
“Well, Jonghyun certainly has a lot of edges,” Kibum snorted into his wine glass and threw a hand kiss at Jonghyun when the other stuck out his tongue at him.   
  
“You think?” Minho probed, not looking like he was about to agree with Kibum on that matter. “I think he’s really kind and sweet.”   
  
The comment made Jonghyun blush a little and he dropped his gaze, smiling to himself, nudging his foot against Minho’s calf, wanting him to stop making him feel shy. He wasn’t used to be talked to like that, his past relationships having all ended because his ex-boyfriends had considered Jonghyun a cup; short for ‘too cold’, ‘too unapproachable’, and ‘too pessimistic’.  
  
Jinki and Kibum left Jonghyun’s place past 11 pm, Minho hugging Jonghyun close to his chest the minute the front door had closed in front of them.   
  
“See, you worried for nothing,” he mumbled into Jonghyun’s hair and kissed his head, Jonghyun slinging his arms around the other’s slim waist and pressing his cheek against his chest.  
  
“You were impressive. Like – wow. You should consider a career in acting,” he murmured into Minho’s dress-shirt which now smelled like black bean paste and pork meat. When Minho chuckled his whole chest vibrated, Jonghyun smiling to himself when he heard the sound of it.  
  
“It wasn’t acting though. I just mixed the truth up a little bit,” he admitted and cupped Jonghyun’s face in his hands.   
  
“Let’s wash up and go to bed, mh?” he suggested before he pressed the tiniest of kisses onto Jonghyun’s forehead.   
  
“Do you want to shower first?” Jonghyun asked out of politeness.  
  
Minho shook his head. “No, you go first. I will quickly clean the wine glasses in the meantime.”   
  
When Jonghyun lay in bed later, not smelling like food anymore, and waited for Minho to join him, he noticed a blinking on his phone and picked it up to read a message he had just received.  
  
_> > He passed with flying colors. Disgusting … Damn, I didn’t expect you to have such good taste. The last guy you introduced me to was a total wimp in comparison. We should go and grab a coffee soon … to talk about everything. Sleep tight *wink wink* <<_  
  
Jonghyun snorted when he read the message, shaking his head at Kibum’s directness. His friend was unbelievable.   
  
“Kibum sent me a message. You should read it,” he said when Minho came up the stairs after a while, wearing nothing but white boxer briefs which contrasted nicely against his skin tone.   
  
“Why? What did he write? Did I pass his test?” Minho joked and let himself fall onto Jonghyun, not even thinking about restraining himself anymore. Though still, a little hesitant, Jonghyun enjoyed the closeness, their bodies still modestly separated by a thick blanket.   
  
“Here.”  
  
He said and turned his phone around to show Minho the message, the other leaning his head back to read the text properly, the smile on his face widening with every word he read.   
  
“Your friend is truly something,” he established when he was done, burying his face momentarily into the blanket, chuckling.   
  
“He is, isn’t he?” Jonghyun agreed with a grin and placed his phone next to the mattress on the floor before he crossed his arms behind his head to take a better look at Minho. He liked the extra weight on top of him. It made him feel cozy and safe.   
  
“I’m not too heavy?” Minho suddenly asked and looked up from Jonghyun’s chest who shook his head in response.  
  
“No, I feel quite cozy.”  
  
With a smile Minho crawled a little further up and placed his elbows on either side of Jonghyun’s head, his gaze so intense that the older one had to look away after a bit, feeling his face heat up.   
  
“Sometimes you are so shy, it’s cute,” he pointed out the obvious and bent down until he was mere centimeters away from Jonghyun’s face.   
  
“Well, eye contact is quite an intimate thing, isn’t it?” Jonghyun stammered, his insides twitching nervously.  
  
Minho agreed with a hum. “That’s why I like doing it.”  
  
When Jonghyun still didn’t look up at him, Minho began to wiggle around a little impatiently on top of him, whining. “Come on, look at me again. Show me your pretty eyes.”   
  
At first, Jonghyun shook his head a little reluctantly, but when Minho didn’t stop with his cutesy act, he gave up and glanced up at him, trying to withstand the urge of looking away again as much as possible. However, he didn’t manage to hold up for long and began to snicker in embarrassment, hiding his face behind his hands.   
  
“Ah, this is so embarrassing,” he wailed and kicked around only to be confused when Minho got up and rolled down next to him, finding his way to Jonghyun under the blanket. He was surprised when he felt Minho’s hand slipping beneath his t-shirt next, his complaints trailing off, and the beating of his heart getting louder in his ears. Minho didn’t say anything and his expression was rather neutral when he skidded closer and silenced Jonghyun by just kissing him, Jonghyun’s heart feeling like it was about to jump out of his chest. He could get used to those make-out sessions at night that made him feel dizzy and light-headed. Turning onto his side, Jonghyun tried to deepen the kiss, fingers reaching out to run through the hair in Minho’s neck, his tongue teasingly touching Minho’s, the corners of his lips turning up into a smile when the other tried to pull him even closer. He was about to fall completely into the rhythm of their lips moving against each other when a hand on his crotch startled him. Instinctively, he pulled away and brought some distance between Minho and himself, pressing both his hands on the other’s chest as he shook his head no.  
  
“Too soon,” he said quickly when Minho looked a little puzzled.  
  
“But you’re so hard already.”   
  
Jonghyun licked his lips and looked down with a bright red face. “I don’t know if you have noticed, but you are quite hot.”   
  
That comment made Minho snicker. “Naked I’m even hotter, I promise,” he teased with a wink, frisky now.   
  
“Thanks for the mental image,” Jonghyun quipped, not needing another reminder that he was probably missing out on a lot of things because he didn’t want to rush anything. Minho occasionally walking around in sweatpants without any underwear underneath was reminder enough.  
  
“There’s no rush, right? We can wait for a little and see how this goes,” he reassured, smiling when Minho nodded in agreement. He mouthed a thank you before he searched for Minho’s hands underneath the blanket and intertwined their fingers, trying to go for another round of looking at Minho without feeling embarrassed. 


	13. Vol. 7– Chapter 4: Unconventional Dinner Date

**Vol. 7– Chapter 4**

**Unconventional Dinner Date**

It was the end of January when Jonghyun came back from work to find his apartment in a state he had never seen it before. He carefully made his way through a jungle of potted plants who blocked his way, only to find more plants placed in his living room; rubber plants, macho ferns, monsteras, and even kentia palms.   
  
“What the hell?” he asked with a frown when he reached the center of his living room and discovered Minho sitting on a big blanket surrounded by all those exotic plants, a stupid grin plastered onto his face.  
  
“Welcome home,” he said and patted the place next to him.   
  
His response only caused the wrinkles on Jonghyun’s forehead to deepen. “What’s going on here? What is this?” He gestured around with his hands, feeling like he had entered a garden center.   
  
“It’s a picnic.” The nonchalance in Minho’s voice as he pulled a braided wooden basket out from behind his back was so prominent that Jonghyun thought all this was a set up for a prank.   
  
His eyes narrowed. “A picnic?”   
  
“Yes. I wanted to go on a picnic with you, but it’s January and raining outside. So I thought if we can’t go on a picnic, the picnic has to come to us.” He beamed as if this was the best idea he had ever come up with.  
  
“Where did you get all those plants from?”   
  
Jonghyun’s mind still tried to comprehend what he was seeing. Work had been exhausting and he had looked forward to a nice hot shower and a relaxing evening in front of the TV, but instead, he had ended up in a survival show, his couch pushed to the side to make more room for the blanket and the plants on the floor.   
  
“I asked around the neighborhood” he shrugged and went on to open the basket and pull out a bottle of wine, baguette, cheese, and grapes. Were they in a jungle in France?  
  
“And the neighbors just lent you their plants like that?”   
  
There was a nod. “Yeah, I mean most come from the older lady on the first floor. I think she likes me a lot. She not only let me borrow her plants but gave me a container with kimchi she made and a container with frozen Seolleongtang. She’s cute.”   
  
Minho talked with a calmness in his voice that had no equal. Jonghyun had been living in his apartment building for more than five years and Mrs. Song on the first floor had never given him kimchi or Seolleongtang while Minho had only to smile at people to make them fall in love with him. Having that power surely must be a gift.   
  
At a loss for words, Jonghyun gaped at Minho for a moment before he clumsily pointed at the bathroom. “I just – I just take a quick shower and get changed.”   
  
Living with Minho had turned Jonghyun’s life completely upside down. While he had spent his evenings alone in front of the TV with some instant ramen in the past, he had to be prepared for surprises 24/7 now. As someone who hated surprises, Jonghyun had a hard time getting used to the other’s spontaneity. Their apartment picnic wasn’t the first time Minho had had an obscure idea for a date, but it still caught Jonghyun by surprise each time. Even a drive to IKEA to buy new kitchen supplies could turn into an adventure with Minho.   
  
When Jonghyun came out of the bath the lights were turned off in his living room, only a string off fairy lights Minho had attached between the plants letting Jonghyun navigate through his apartment. Though Minho’s ideas were always cute and well-executed Jonghyun wondered if the other didn’t lay it on a little too thickly. Weren’t his ideas too cheesy?  
  
“Would you like some wine?”   
  
Minho offered him a glass when he sat down cross-legged in his sweatpants and a hoodie, Jonghyun still looking around the room to take it all in. Minho had even put smaller plants onto the stairs leading up to his bed. Decorating the room must have taken him hours. His dedication to detail was admirable.   
  
“Yes please,” he replied and smiled at Minho when the other filled up his glass. It was red wine.   
  
“You probably think that I’ve gone too far.”   
  
Jonghyun held up his fingers as if he was about to pinch something. “Only slightly.”  
  
Minho chuckled softly and poured himself some wine as well so they could touch glasses.   
  
“I just like the idea of picnics in summer. Lying on the grass, eating something, watching the stars, having deep conversations – it’s nice.”   
  
“Don’t forget the mosquitos,” Jonghyun added and snitched a piece of cheese from the plate standing close to him.   
  
A low sigh followed. “What a pleasantly pessimistic human being you are,” Minho commented and sank down until his head came to a rest in Jonghyun’s lap.   
  
“If you are pessimistic nothing can shock you. You always expect the worst from life and the people around you and if it doesn’t turn out that bad – all the better,” Jonghyun explained casually as he munched his cube of aged Gouda. He didn’t feel uncomfortable being this close to Minho anymore, his hand immediately reaching out to gently comb through the soft mop of hair on his head with his fingers.   
  
“Are you also pessimistic regarding me?” Minho looked up at him, his already big eyes appearing even bigger from this angle. Jonghyun thought about it for a moment as he grabbed a few grapes, feeding two of them to Minho before throwing another into his own mouth.   
  
“Sometimes. Not as often as I used to in the beginning, but sometimes.”  
  
“Why’s that?”   
  
Jonghyun pinched Minho's nose lightly. “Because you are too good to be true. Sometimes I think that there has to be a twist. Something I didn’t read in the fine print, you know.”   
  
Minho nodded understandingly and then reached up to caress Jonghyun’s cheek. “I won’t leave, okay? If you don’t want me to then I won’t leave.”   
  
They exchanged soft smiles and Jonghyun took a deep breath, wanting Minho’s words to be true. He just couldn’t imagine a life without the other anymore.   
  
“Do you miss it sometimes? Your other life I mean?” Jonghyun asked after a while as he twirled strands of Minho’s hair around his fingers, watching it turn into wavy locks for a moment when he let them go again.   
  
“No, not at all.”   
  
“Not even your friends or Byungho?” Jonghyun wasn’t convinced. He would miss Kibum and Jinki terribly if he had to move somewhere else. But at least he would still be able to contact them in contrast to Minho who had no way of contacting anyone at all.   
  
Minho shook his head lightly. “No, I have you now, and I can make new friends. My colleagues at work are nice, and your friends, though Kibum is quite blunt, seem pretty great too. My life there was less exciting than you might think it was.”  
  
Jonghyun wasn’t sure if Minho spoke the truth or if he only wanted to make him feel better about the situation, but he didn’t want to probe further and accepted Minho’s answer instead.   
  
“Tell me about your ex-boyfriends. What were they like? You always say that you’ve dated before, but that’s about it. Why didn’t it work out with any of them?”  
  
The question came a little unforeseen, but Jonghyun didn’t mind answering it. It was nothing he didn’t want to talk about, he just didn’t deem it necessary.   
  
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “They were just regular guys I guess. It just never worked out. The guy I’ve dated last is married to a woman now and has a newborn child. Being with him always felt like a big secret. We were together for over a year and neither his parents nor friends did know that I even existed. I always had the feeling that he felt embarrassed for liking me or that he wasn’t comfortable with liking guys at all I guess.”   
  
“He sounds like a douchebag,” the straightforwardness of Minho’s words made Jonghyun chuckle and he nodded in agreement.  
  
“I guess he was.”   
  
“I would show you off to anyone like a trophy boyfriend,” he said then, making big gestures into the air.   
  
Jonghyun snorted in amusement. “If one of us was a trophy boyfriend, it would probably you.”   
  
“Did you just call me your boyfriend?” Minho fluttered his eyelashes, his grin cheeky and playful.  
  
“No, I said ‘a trophy boyfriend’ and not ‘my trophy boyfriend’. There was no possessive pronoun anywhere,” Jonghyun clarified immediately with a raised finger, a pout forming on his lips when Minho didn’t want to believe him.  
  
“But I belong to you – so that technically means that I’m your boyfriend,” he dug deeper and took a sip from his wine glass.   
  
“We technically share an apartment, that’s all.”   
  
“We also technically share your bed as well,” Minho added right away, sounding like a smartass which caused Jonghyun to sigh excessively.

“You just called me a trophy boyfriend. Doesn’t everyone want a trophy boyfriend?”   
  
“The word ‘boyfriend’,” Jonghyun began and put the word ‘boyfriend’ into quotation marks with his fingers. “It’s just a title. It has no importance or does it?”   
  
“But that’s how I got here, right? You were wishing for the perfect boyfriend, not the perfect housemate, not the perfect neighbor, and not the perfect colleague, but a perfect boyfriend.”   
  
Jonghyun tugged on the strings of his hoodie, not liking how factual Minho was. “I don’t like where this conversation is going,” he murmured into the collar of his hoodie, sulking a little when Minho began to laugh.   
  
“Because I looked right through your bullshit?” Minho asked.  
  
Jonghyun’s reply was short. “Maybe.”   
  
Brazenly pulling the strings on Jonghyun’s hoodie, Minho watched Jonghyun’s face almost disappear completely underneath the hood in pure delight and only stopped when the other began to grumble angrily and grabbed his hands.   
  
“Stop it,” he complained and tried to pull Minho’s fingers from the strings attached to his hoodie. But he was unsuccessful, Minho only pulling stronger and stronger onto the strings until Jonghyun had to bend his head down under the pressure, a squeaking sound coming out of his mouth when he had Minho’s lips on his in the next second. The kiss was quick and short and before Jonghyun could say anything the pressure on his hoodie’s strings was gone again and all he could hear was an amused little giggle. 


	14. Vol. 8 – Chapter 2: Sport ist Mord!

**Vol. 8 – Chapter 2**   
**Sport ist Mord!**

  
  
“Why won’t you ever work out with me?”   
  
Minho stood in the middle of the room and jumped rope as a warm-up while Jonghyun lay on the couch, manhwa in one hand and his other one stuffed in a bag of sour gummy bears. Both of them had very different ideas of what a relaxing Sunday looked like, Minho using the time to work-out and Jonghyun to read manhwa on the couch.   
  
“I only work out in summer. In winter I’m just a beaver,” Jonghyun mumbled as a reply, munching on one of the gummy bears. There was a chuckle that got almost drowned out by the steady rhythm of Minho’s skipping rope hitting the floor.   
  
“But exercising during winter is good for one’s health,” Minho explained a little out of breath after fifteen minutes of jumping without stopping.   
  
“It sure is,” Jonghyun agreed only to demonstratively fish out another gummy bear from the bag and bite its head off. It was hard enough to watch Minho exercise, so Jonghyun didn’t want to make it worse for himself by participating.   
  
Minho’s chest was naked, his upper body already damp with sweat, every jump making his chest muscles bounce. The movement was hypnotizing and Jonghyun caught himself staring at Minho’s pecs more often than he dared to admit, his mind automatically going _‘tiddies, tiddies, tiddies’_ whenever he looked for too long. It was such a distraction that he was glad when Minho finally finished his warm-up and rolled out a mat for floor exercises. Not that those were any better, considering what possibilities the floor offered other than doing harmless exercises on it, but at least there wasn’t any bouncing involved.   
  
Jonghyun was about to go back to reading when Minho called out for him.   
  
“Hey beaver, could you help me out for a bit?”   
  
“With what?” Jonghyun asked, almost sounding irritated. Minho never needed help with anything so he automatically assumed right away that this was all just a pretense to get him up from the couch.  
  
“Could you hold my feet down while I’m doing some sit-ups?”   
  
Minho was already lying on his back, hands behind his head, his eyes directed at Jonghyun.  
  
“Are you for real?” Jonghyun looked up from his manhwa, not having paid much attention to it ever since Minho had taken off his sweatshirt earlier.   
  
“Pretty please?” Minho begged now, using his cutesy voice on Jonghyun again because he knew that the other had a soft spot for it. With an unmotivated sigh, Jonghyun put the manhwa aside and got up from the couch, hesitating for a second when he hovered above Minho. It definitely should be illegal to have a body like that, he thought when he kneeled at the lower end of the mat and grabbed Minho’s feet, the other smiling up at him.  
  
“Thanks a lot,” he said and started pressing himself up right away, Jonghyun trying to put his focus on an indention in the laminate next to Minho’s body because he couldn’t bring himself to look at the other’s chest directly in front of him out of fear that he would start drooling at the sight of Minho’s pecs like Pavlov’s dog after hearing the sound of a bell.   
  
“Why are you so silent? Tell me something,” Minho requested after the twentieth sit-up without the slightest strain in his voice. To him sit-ups seemed to be just like a walk in a park, not exhausting at all.   
  
Jonghyun shrugged, pulling a face. “I don’t know what. What do you want to hear?”   
  
“Anything. Something I don’t know about you yet,” he suggested light-heartedly, Jonghyun instinctively leaning back whenever Minho came up with his upper body. For a moment he pondered if there was anything he hadn’t told Minho yet.   
  
“Did I mention that I was in a ‘My Chemical Romance’ inspired emo band when I was a teen?” he then asked, not quite sure if that part of his life had ever come up. His so-called ‘emo-phase’ had lasted less than a year, but it had been an intense time, involving lots of kohl, black nail polish, hairspray, and studded belts on the weekends when he was out of school and could wear the clothes he wanted.   
  
“’My Chemical Romance’ and emo? What is that?” Minho paused and Jonghyun made the mistake of actually looking at him, his chest flushed and nipples so hard that Jonghyun forgot how to speak for a second.   
  
“It’s –,” Jonghyun’s brows furrowed as he tried to remember the Korean language, his ability to speak only coming back to him when he decided to look out of the window. He acted truly ridiculous as if he hadn’t seen a bare chest before. “Well, emo is a genre just like jazz or pop. Its emphasis is on emotional expression – that’s why it’s called emo,” he tried to explain as short as possible, not wanting to make a lecture out of it. “And ‘My Chemical Romance’ is an emo band that was highly influential for kids in the 2000s. I was one of those kids. I could barely play the guitar, but a bunch of friends and I met up every Saturday anyway to cover their songs and work on our own. We were awful – like really, really bad,” Jonghyun recalled with a smile, chuckling when he remembered how ridiculous he had looked.   
  
“So you were in a band? That sounds like a lot of fun,” Minho continued with his sit-ups while Jonghyun had lost count of them after fifty. “It’s also kind of hot. Do you still play the guitar?”  
  
“Very poorly,” Jonghyun admitted. “I haven’t picked up a guitar since college. I think I forgot how to play most chords.”   
  
“Maybe you should pick that hobby up again. People who play instruments are incredibly sexy,” Minho said smugly and winked at him which resulted in Jonghyun snorting in disbelief.   
  
“Did you just imply that I’m not sexy?” Jonghyun asked and acted scandalized, knowing quite well that he wasn’t the sexy type. He was the cute, nerdy-looking type who could look attractive in the right lighting and clothes, but sexy? None of the guys he had ever dated had called him that – not even once.   
  
“Oh – no, you are incredibly sexy but in your way. When you get out of the bath and towel your hair? That’s sexy as fuck. When you get ready for work and put on your business attire? That’s sexy as fuck as well,” Minho listed nonchalantly, making Jonghyun blush who slapped Minho’s knee and shook his head.  
  
“Ah stop it, I wasn’t fishing for compliments. No one ever called me sexy. That feels weird,” Jonghyun admitted, shuddering with disgust.   
  
Minho smiled, though it looked like he felt pity for him. “You are bad with compliments, aren’t you? How about just accepting them for once without belittling yourself?”   
  
“Not possible,” he replied quickly, his mouth turning into one thin line.   
  
The next time Minho came up from the floor he almost touched Jonghyun’s nose whose eyes widened in bewilderment, shocked how much strength the other had in his core muscles.   
  
“So when I want to torture you I just need to shackle you and shower you with compliments?”   
  
Jonghyun looked skeptical. “Why would you want to torture me?”   
  
“I don’t know. Who knows what you are into,” Minho teased with a smug grin, coming up close to Jonghyun’s face again the next time he came up.   
  
“Well, definitely not torture,” Jonghyun rolled his eyes, wondering if Minho or his muscles were ever going to tire out.   
  
The next time Minho came up, he halted in his movements, looking at Jonghyun for a moment. “Is that so? What are you into then?”   
  
“Don’t you have to concentrate on your sit-ups?”  
  
“I can multitask.”   
  
“How many can you do?” Jonghyun asked to change the subject, not liking how his tummy began to feel fuzzy and his body hot.  
  
His question was answered with an amused laugh. “Plenty.”   
  
“Show-off!”   
  
Another laugh. “Does it work? Are you impressed?”   
  
“Maybe a little.”  
  
“Maybe a little,” Minho repeated like a parrot and came to a standstill in front of Jonghyun’s face again. “Kiss me,” he said out of nowhere, Jonghyun not quite sure if he had understood him correctly.  
  
“What?” he asked dumbly.  
  
“Kiss me,” Minho repeated, not making a move to initiate the kiss himself by leaning closer. Jonghyun’s first reaction was to snicker because he believed that Minho was only playing with him, but when Minho didn’t seem to go back to doing sit-ups, he wavered and cocked his head slightly.   
  
“But you are in the middle of working out.”  
  
“And?” Minho questioned and Jonghyun contemplated what that ‘and’ possibly could be. When he didn’t find a reasonable answer he sighed and leaned forward, pressing only the lightest of kisses to Minho’s lips before pulling away again. He could tease the other too.  
  
“That’s all I get?”   
  
“What? Wasn’t that good enough for you?” Jonghyun asked in an arrogant tone, surprise flashing over his face when Minho’s hands grabbed his upper arms suddenly and pulled him down with him, Minho’s legs embracing him with his feet and crossing on top of Jonghyun’s lower back as if the two of them were in a wrestling match. Jonghyun stood no chance against Minho and just fell against him on the floor and wasn’t able to get up again because Minho’s legs held onto him tightly.   
  
“What the fuck was that for?” Jonghyun swore like a trooper, trying to balance himself on top of the other by freeing his arms and placing them next to Minho’s head.   
  
A chuckle. “You would make a splendid top.”  
  
“Excuse me?” Jonghyun coughed, having a hard time swallowing. He felt Minho’s legs tightening around him to pull him closer, his throat feeling dry when their crotches touched and the grin on Minho’s face got smugger by the second.   
  
“You don’t agree then?” Minho assured himself, Jonghyun having no idea what the other was even talking about anymore, too occupied by the thought of their bodies touching. When Jonghyun didn’t say anything, Minho reached up to caress his cheeks with his hands, his features softening.   
  
“One proper kiss and I will let you go,” he said cutely, having the dance of switching between smug and cute perfected.   
  
“Promise?” Jonghyun gnawed on the corner of his lip when Minho nodded. “Okay then.”   
  
Minho was smiling when Jonghyun leaned down to kiss him, arms immediately slinging around his neck when their lips touched. A hum coming deep from Jonghyun’s throat left his lips when Minho opened his mouth a little and touched his tongue against him, teasing and enticing him. It was way too easy to be lured into Minho’s traps, falling right into them and not even wanting to get out of them again. It would have been simple to completely give in when Minho’s hands wandered down his back and slipped beneath his hoodie, goosebumps covering his skin wherever he was touched, but Jonghyun didn’t want to surrender without a fight, breaking away from their kiss when Minho wanted to deepen it.   
  
“That break was long enough I think. You should go back to your exercises,” Jonghyun tried to make his voice sound as steady and unaffected as possible and got up when Minho’s legs loosened their grip on him.  
  
“Cock tease,” Minho murmured in slight protest when Jonghyun was back on his feet and straightened his hoodie. Jonghyun merely puffed and gave him a little nudge with his foot before he went back to the couch to bring some distance between their bodies.   
  
“Cock tease,” Minho repeated a little louder, the unhappy tone in his voice making Jonghyun chuckle and flip him off in response. He flung himself back onto the couch then and tried to cover the slight bulge in his pants with his hoodie as good as possible, not wanting to present himself to Minho as an even bigger target. 


	15. Vol. 8 – Chapter 3: Caffe Latte

**Vol. 8 – Chapter 3**   
**Caffe Latte**

  
  
“You know that I hate those people who always go like ‘Wow – you’ve changed so much because of XY. You seem so happy now’,” Kibum imitated in a pretentious tone. “But I have to be one of those people for once. You seem to be in a better mood ever since Minho showed up.”  
  
“Do I?” Jonghyun asked a little skeptically as he added sugar to his coffee and stirred it with a spoon.   
  
“Dude, you are practically glowing,” Kibum pointed out and touched his own face as if he was about to apply highlighter. Kibum wasn’t the first one to comment on Jonghyun’s mood change, even his colleagues had told him that they had never seen him look better before. It was hard to believe because whenever Jonghyun looked into a mirror he still only saw those dark circles beneath his eyes that didn’t pay rent despite having resided on his face for so long already.   
  
“I assume things are going well with the teacher?” he probed and took a sip from his Caffe Latte while Jonghyun checked out a young couple sitting two tables away. They looked as if they were freshly in love, sharing little giggles and not letting go of each other’s hands even for a second. In the past, he would have snorted and turned away in disgust, but somehow he considered the sight cute now and hoped that the relationship of those two lovebirds would last forever.   
  
“I think so,” Jonghyun answered plainly when he looked back at his friend who eyed him with a frown.  
  
“You think so?” he repeated, astonished. “You’ve hit the jackpot, Jonghyun. The way that the guy is always looking at you. He’s head over heels for you.”   
  
Jonghyun dropped his gaze shyly, continuously stirring his coffee despite the sugar most likely having dissolved by now. “Things are good. He’s sweet.”   
  
“He’s still living with you though? What kind of sanitary work lasts for a couple of weeks? Did they rip his whole bathroom apart?” Kibum questioned and Jonghyun wasn’t quite sure what to answer him without becoming even more entangled in a web of lies.  
  
“No, his apartment is fine,” he answered after a moment. “It’s just – well – he just likes to spend his time with me, and I like having him around.”   
  
“So you are not sick of each other yet?”   
  
Jonghyun shook his head. “No, not at all. I like falling asleep next to him and waking up next to him again. It feels nice,” he admitted meekly, realizing how different he sounded compared to a couple of weeks ago.   
  
“Babe, you are so in love,” Kibum grinned. “Gross,” he added with a chuckle which made Jonghyun laugh as well. There was no reason to deny it any longer, Jonghyun had never been this happy before with anyone, just the thought of Minho making him smile stupidly.   
  
“I guess so,” he shrugged with a tiny grin covering his lips.  
  
“So,” Kibum began then and took another sip from his Latte. “How are things in bed,” he wriggled his eyebrows. “You are so tipped-lipped about it. I’ve told you how things went down with Jinki back then,” he said, adding a small pout for emphasis.   
  
“It’s not like I ever asked you for that kind of information,” Jonghyun pointed out.  
  
“But I told you anyway,” Kibum made clear and placed his drink back onto the table. “I’m your best friend, not a stranger. Spill the beans. Minho looks like someone who would make sure you come twice before he even thinks about his own orgasm.”   
  
That comment almost made Jonghyun choke on his coffee, and he coughed loudly, having a hard time breathing.  
  
“Yah! We’re not alone here,” Jonghyun complained as he watched the other people in the small café, not one of them paying him any attention.  
  
“I’m just saying,” Kibum shrugged. “Remember those college days when the guys came after twenty seconds and thought they did something there? Embarrassing.”   
  
Both of them shared a laugh before Jonghyun fell silent again. “We didn’t – you know. We haven’t done it yet,” he finally admitted and looked down at the table.  
  
“Not even,” Kibum made an obvious jerking off motion with his hand. “Or,” he opened his mouth additionally, pushing his tongue against the inside of his cheek.  
  
Jonghyun shook his head. “Nope.”   
  
“But why? You are not a freaking virgin anymore.”   
  
Jonghyun looked around in a panic when Kibum’s voice had become visibly louder at the end of his sentence, but still, no one paid them any attention. Maybe the people around them had more important matters to discuss than listening to a conversation between people they didn’t know.   
  
“I know – I know. Can you maybe not yell through the whole café?” Jonghyun begged in a whisper tone. “It’s just – it’s complicated, that’s all.”   
  
“What on earth is complicated about having sex? You take it out and put it in. There are even different holes available for that. No biggie,” Kibum spoke frankly, his directness turning Jonghyun’s cheeks pink. Maybe he was still a virgin at heart after all. He didn’t tell Kibum that it felt morally wrong for him to sleep with Minho due to the fact HOW Minho had entered his life, instead, he went with a prude answer though it was the less convincing one.  
  
“I don’t want to rush anything.”  
  
“Jonghyun, you are a grown-up man who has been practically living with some hot dude for weeks. You can’t tell me that there hasn’t been one single incident during that time in which you thought, damn – I want to fuck that guy.”   
  
Jonghyun snorted. “Those incidents occur about eight to ten times a day.”   
  
Kibum’s expression changed drastically from accusing and judging to being immensely confused.   
  
“Babe, you don’t make sense – like at all,” Kibum held his hands up in front of his chest, looking like he was about to give up and call Jonghyun insane.   
  
“Do things have to make sense all the time?” Jonghyun probed, having asked himself the question multiply times ever since Minho had popped up out of nowhere. It didn’t make sense for Minho to be there and yet he was; a human-made out of flesh and blood.  
  
“Look at you, asking deep questions during lunch,” Kibum chuckled and then reached out to touch Jonghyun’s hand. “I won’t annoy you any longer with it, okay? But I want to be the first person you contact when you two finally have done it, okay? I will even send you a congratulations card.”   
  
Jonghyun held a hand in front of his mouth while laughing. “Of course you will!”   



	16. Vol. 8 – Chapter 5: The Wolf chases the Sheep

**Vol. 8 – Chapter 5**

**The Wolf chases the Sheep**

Jonghyun had agreed to meet up with Jinki and Kibum without a second of hesitation when Kibum had sent him a message suggesting it. For every chance he got to not be alone with Minho in a room he was thankful, even having considered working overtime a couple of times to get home later. It wasn’t like something bad had happened that made him dislike Minho or disagree with him. Quite the opposite was, in fact, the case.   
  
He wanted Minho in the most basic animalistic way, but at the same time felt weird for being so sex-driven since it was so unlike him. Sometimes he still watched Minho out of the corner of his eye while the other exercised at home, doing sit-ups and crunches, or pulling himself up on a metal rod he had bought and fastened between the door frame, and Jonghyun caught himself way too often thinking about Minho naked while doing that. He felt guilty about it, but he couldn’t do anything about it and Minho didn’t make it easier for him either, always training in just a pair of shorts with no shirt on.   
  
Minho felt the tension building up between the two of them as well, Jonghyun knew. Their make-out sessions turning steamier and harder to interrupt each time. Just the other day Minho had pulled at his hair in frustration and had fallen back into the pillows after the two of them had practically dry-humped on the bed until Jonghyun had got cold feet and had pushed Minho unceremoniously away after an actual moan had left his mouth. Therefore, the most logical thing to do in Jonghyun’s eyes was to avoid any one-on-one situations in which the two of them were alone.  
  
Though Minho would have preferred to stay the night in with Jonghyun he had agreed to come with him to Jinki’s and Kibum’s shared apartment, the two of them taking a taxi in the evening in case they wanted to drink some alcohol.   
  
Kibum had cooked pasta for them, Minho’s left hand not leaving Jonghyun’s thigh alone underneath the table during dinner, and Jonghyun continuously changing the position of his legs to shake the other off – his endeavors unsuccessful.   
  
“How are things going at school, Minho? Do the kids like you?” Jinki asked as he swirled some pasta into a spoon, Minho munching on a piece of salad while the fingers of his other hand inched closer and closer to Jonghyun’s crotch. Jonghyun had a hard time concentrating on the conversation, all his senses focused on Minho’s fingers, his chest feeling hot.  
  
Minho carried it off well, giving the impression that he merely enjoyed his food when he swallowed the salad down and took a sip from his glass of wine.   
  
“The kids are great. The school offered me a permanent position for the upcoming term. So that’s great,” he explained while his hand now came to a stop on Jonghyun’s zipper, making the older one almost jump out of his seat. Jonghyun knew that he had been acting a little prudish in the past few weeks, considering the two of them had the hots for each other and Jonghyun was reluctant to do anything about it, but what Minho did now was playing unfair, teasing him like that without a care in the world.   
  
“Oh congrats, that sounds great.”   
  
Minho continued with his charade throughout dinner including the dessert, letting his hand wander up and down Jonghyun's inner thigh, and grazing his crotch with his fingers before going back again, and though Jonghyun had mouthed at him to stop several times in a row, Minho had only batted his eyelashes cutely at him and had mouthed back a simple ‘No’. It frustrated him how a small part of him was immensely turned on by the whole situation, and finding it exciting how sneaky Minho was and how badly he wanted to feel more than just a hand on his body. He didn’t want to feel turned on while having dinner with his friends.   
  
“We should go out dancing,” Kibum suggested after they had finished eating, his shoulders shaking from left to right in a rhythm only he heard. Jonghyun had such a hard time properly functioning with Minho’s hand so far up his thigh that he used the first chance he got to get up and help Kibum clear away the empty plates, a wave of relief washing over him when the unbearable pressure on his thigh was finally gone.   
  
“Mmhh – sounds fun. Are you two up for some partying?” Jinki asked with a grin and got up from the table as well to carry the empty pots of noodles and sauce back to the kitchen.   
  
“I am not sure – maybe Jonghyun’s a little tired.”   
  
Jonghyun knew that line, manhwa Minho had used it in different situations before, but the meaning behind it had always been the same. He wanted them to go home, craved for some form of relief. Jonghyun felt like the tension between them had almost reached its peak, seething beneath the surface, about to burst. But Jonghyun was still fighting with himself, not sure what he was supposed to do. If Minho wasn’t Minho, if the situation had been a different one, if Minho hadn’t been sent his way like a pity present for some lonesome guy in his twenties, nothing would be the same. If Minho had been just a regular guy from the street they probably would have fucked on the third or fourth date if things had gone well between them. But that wasn’t the case. Minho wasn’t a regular guy from the streets. So Jonghyun wasn’t sure if it was fair and right to dwell in the feelings of happiness Minho brought him when nothing of it was even real in his eyes?  
  
“No, I’m as fit as a fiddle. I’d love to dance a bit,” Jonghyun exclaimed a little too enthusiastically to be seen as natural, Minho sending a wary look his way which he decided to ignore. If he could postpone the inevitable only a little he would be grateful.   
  
But visiting a club made things just worse. Kibum had taken them to one of the many gay clubs in Jongno; the people there nicely dressed up and exuberant. Jinki had ordered them a round of drinks, and due to the club being packed to the fullest it had been impossible to bring some distance between himself and Minho. Every time he tried to step a little further away, another person pushed passed him and shoved him right back into Minho’s arms who eventually held onto Jonghyun’s hip with one hand, hooking a finger onto one of Jonghyun’s belt loops as if to tell him to stop running away from him. It was a subtle gesture that got unnoticed by his friends, but Jonghyun felt hot shivers running down his spine, making it impossible for him to think straight.   
  
“Hey, would you like to dance with me?” Minho asked him eventually as he leaned down close to his ear so Jonghyun could hear him. At first, he wanted to say ‘No’, but Minho had already taken his glass and had given it to Kibum before he even had the chance to do so. Minho pulled him through the dancing crowd; the song blasting from the boxes bass-heavy and loud, and the people around them dancing closely together with their arms and hands everywhere. Minho fell right into the rhythm when they found a spot on the dance floor and moved his body along to the music while Jonghyun had a harder time at first and just stood around until Minho pulled him closer, and bent down towards him.  
  
“I thought you wanted to go clubbing so badly?” he teased with a grin that made Jonghyun’s heart skip a beat.  
  
“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too,” Jonghyun admitted, his breath hitching when Minho placed the tiniest of kisses behind his ear. He was just teasing him again, he told himself, trying to stay strong.   
  
“You thought? Does that mean you aren’t sure anymore?” There was another kiss, a little lower, Jonghyun’s eyes falling shut for a second.   
  
“You are playing unfair.”   
  
He whined when Minho chuckled, his fingers running over the shell of his ear.   
  
“Let’s go home.”  
  
Jonghyun shook his head. “We can’t leave yet. We’ve just arrived.”  
  
“It doesn’t matter. Kibum and Jinki won’t mind. Let’s grab a taxi and leave.”   
  
Minho played the devil’s advocate and did a pretty good job, his words slowly but surely weaving his way inside Jonghyun’s mind, clouding his judgment. When Jonghyun didn’t react Minho came closer again, pressing the faintest of kisses close to Jonghyun’s mouth who almost moved along with him when Minho pulled back again.  
  
“Taxi?” he tried again with questioning eyes, moving both their bodies over the dance floor. When Jonghyun finally gave up with putting up a ridiculous and unnecessary fight and consented to Minho’s proposal, the grin on the other’s face widened, and they walked back to Jinki and Kibum, Jonghyun telling them a fake story about him not feeling well all of a sudden which only Jinki truly believed while Kibum took a suspiciously loud sip from his drink, eyeing Jonghyun over the rim of his glass.  
  
The fifteen minutes’ drive home felt incredibly long, Minho making small-talk with the taxi driver while running his palm to the inside of Jonghyun’s thigh again, and Jonghyun having a hard time resisting the urge of moving his pelvis just the tiniest bit so Minho’s hand would end up in his crotch where he wanted to feel it the most at that moment. When they finally arrived at the apartment Jonghyun bolted out of the taxi after paying the fare and took two steps at a time up to his apartment while Minho had a hard time keeping up with him. He put in the wrong password three times in a row out of nerves until Minho had finally come up the stairs behind him, giggling, and leaning passed him to put in the correct combination of numbers.   
  
They weren’t even halfway in when Jonghyun’s mouth was already on Minho’s, his body pressing the taller one against the wall next to the doorway.   
  
“You’ve won,” he mouthed against Minho’s lips, relishing in the enthusiasm his approach was met with. They slipped out of their shoes before stumbling into the living room, Minho fumbling with Jonghyun’s shirt and pulling it out of his jeans. Afterward, he slipped the green sweater Jonghyun had chosen for him over his head and threw it aside without a care in the world before he began to unbutton Jonghyun’s shirt in a hurry.   
  
“You really want this?” Minho assured himself when he met the other halfway along the row of buttons, Jonghyun’s answer being a nod and another kiss.  
  
“I can’t remember ever wanting something so bad.”   
  
Jonghyun pulled Minho over to the couch, pushed him down onto it and stripped off his opened shirt before climbing on top of the other and settling into his lap. It was crazy how much Jonghyun wanted the other, how all his suppressed feelings suddenly surfaced, not willing to be pushed down any longer. They made-out on the couch, bare chests pressed against each other while Jonghyun looked for more friction by rubbing his pelvis against Minho’s until the other held onto his hips, stopping him.  
  
“My jeans are starting to feel tight,” he explained with a sheepish grin which was met with an amused little chuckle.   
  
“So do mine,” he admitted and reached out to place Minho’s hand onto the button of his jeans, wanting him to open it. But Minho felt him first, let his hand run over the zipper to make Jonghyun shudder before he finally unbuttoned it. He stood up then and pulled his jeans and his underwear down in one go, stepping out of it and kicking it aside with his foot.   
  
For a split second, he felt shy when Minho looked him up and down and considered covering himself up only to realize how stupid that thought was.   
  
“Let’s go upstairs,” he said at last and stretched out his hand, smiling when Minho took it right away and got up from the couch, his boner distinct in his pair of jeans.   
  
Minho couldn’t wait to find himself in Jonghyun’s bed, chasing the other up the stairs until he could pin him down to the mattress and climb on top of him, Jonghyun fumbling with his jeans while they were kissing. When he finally managed to push the jeans down and over Minho’s butt, the other rolled onto his side next to Jonghyun to get rid of the annoying piece of fabric and kicked it down the stairs with his feet.   
  
They smiled at each other before Minho crawled back into Jonghyun’s arms and looped his arms around the other’s shoulders, hugging him tightly as they kissed, Jonghyun’s legs spreading around Minho to pull him closer, the intimate contact foreign but more than welcome.   
  
“At least admit that you’ve wanted this all along,” Minho breathed between kisses and skidded down, tongue licking along his collarbones.   
  
“Why? Would that give you some kind of ego boost?” Jonghyun asked with slight amusement in his voice, back arching when Minho grabbed one of his legs and pulled it over his thigh.   
  
“Would it be bad if it did?” Came the prompt reply which was followed by a gentle bite into one of Jonghyun’s nipples. Moaning softly, Jonghyun grabbed for Minho’s head then and pulled him up to his face again, looking at him, thumbs gracing his cheeks.  
  
“Yes, I’ve wanted this all along,” he admitted finally and pressed his lips onto Minho’s before the other had the chance to even say anything. The last thing Jonghyun had on his mind at that moment was talking. They could spend the next morning with talking about everything, but right then and there he just wanted to feel Minho close to him, wanted to know if having sex with Minho was as good as ‘Perfect 10’ had always suggested.


	17. Vol. 9 – Chapter 1: Bursting the Bubble

**Vol. 9 – Chapter 1**  
**Bursting the Bubble**

  
  
Jonghyun woke up naked and with aching muscles which pleasantly reminded him of the events of last night. He smiled to himself, recalling Minho’s perfect body on top of him; the moans, the sweat, the friction, the tension between them. Blushing from the memory he buried his face into the pillow and chewed on his bottom lip, not able to stop smiling stupidly. He couldn’t believe that Minho had managed to give him the best orgasm he had ever experienced, something that would be impossible to forget. It had felt like Minho knew his body better than Jonghyun did, teasing him, driving him to the edge over and over again until he had finally let him fall into the sweetest bliss. Jonghyun had always enjoyed sex, but sleeping with Minho had felt like he had unlocked a secret passage in a game that had guided him to a room full of treasures.  
  
With a little, happy groan he turned onto his side, wanting to snuggle up to Minho and his bare chest, a little frown finding its way onto his face when he found the bed next to him empty. He reached out to feel the empty mattress next to him, but the sheets felt cold as if Minho had left the bed hours ago. Maybe he had woken up early to make breakfast, Jonghyun assumed, and sat up slowly, hands combing through his tousled hair as he looked down into the living room.   
  
He noticed that something was wrong immediately. He rubbed his eyes before he put on his glasses and scanned the room. The apartment seemed different; too quiet and a little too cold, as if its life had been sucked out of it.   
  
“Minho?” he asked into the room when there was no sign of the other being around, his voice hoarse. He waited for an answer, but there was none, the apartment staying empty and lifeless. Jonghyun went into panic mode immediately, stumbled down the staircase still half-asleep and without putting on any clothes.   
  
“Minho, are you in the bath?”   
  
Jonghyun knocked onto the bathroom door, desperately hoping to receive an answer, even a little ‘hm’ would have been sufficient to calm his nerves, but there was no answer. Heart rate increasing, his hands became sweaty, and he looked around, searching for clues. Maybe Minho had left a note, telling him that he had gone to the supermarket, but there was not a single piece of paper lying around.   
  
He was about to hurry towards his jeans that still lay on the floor to pick up his phone when he noticed something peculiar, something that made all the color from his face vanish in an instant.  
  
“No,” he spoke into the emptiness of the room and ran over to his bookshelf.  
  
“No, no, no.”   
  
Jonghyun panicked, fingers shaking as he saw them standing neatly aligned in the second row, the title looking back at him almost mockingly.   
  
Perfect 10.   
  
All 10 volumes.   
  
He swallowed hard, tears immediately shooting up into his eyes as his fingertips ran along the spines of the manhwa. It couldn’t be. It was impossible. Pulling one of the books out, he flipped them open to quickly skim through the pages, his thumb stopping when he saw him pop up in one of the panels, smiling brightly as he chewed on a honey chip.   
  
The tears began streaming down his face without Jonghyun realizing it, and he sank on the floor helplessly, leaning his back against the shelf.   
  
Minho was gone. 


	18. Vol. 9 – Chapter 2: End of a Dream

**Vol. 9 – Chapter 2**   
**End of a Dream**

  
The clothes Jonghyun had bought him and the photos he had taken were the only things that reminded him that Minho had been real and not just a dream. His shoes cluttered the doorway, and his sweater had been lying on the floor where he had pulled it over his head last night. Jonghyun held onto it now, burying his nose into the fabric as he sat on the couch with his legs pulled towards his chest, crying.   
  
What had begun as a miracle had turned into a nightmare, and Jonghyun couldn’t believe how life could have been so cruel to him by letting him taste heaven only to toss him right back into hell in the next moment.   
  
Did Minho know that this would happen? Did he know he would leave eventually? Did he only play with him? Jonghyun had a dozen questions he would never get an answer to. He felt betrayed and lost, had no idea how he was supposed to go back to a life without Minho.   
  
He called in sick the next morning, nose stuffy and eyes swollen from all the crying. He hadn’t left the bed for the better part of the day, had buried himself beneath the sheets in hope that Minho would come back eventually. But he didn’t.   
  
Not after one day, and not after two. It felt like Minho hadn’t even existed.   
  
When the doorbell rang after Jonghyun had stayed home for four days in a row, he didn’t even bother to move, his bed having become the center of his existence which he only left for a quick trip to the bathroom. He hadn’t eaten properly for days, his diet consisting of chips and beer. His bed was covered in crumbs, and the sheets smeared with chips seasoning. The ‘Perfect 10’ manhwas lay around him, all opened to specific pages showing Minho while he slept, ate, taught in school, worked out, read a book, and had sex.   
  
Jonghyun had drowned himself so deep in a puddle of self-pity that he was convinced that he didn’t deserve happiness, that he was doomed to stay alone forever, to jerk off and cry over a fictional character that for a fraction of time had been his.   
  
“Holy shit, it stinks here.”  
  
He showed no reaction when the door to his apartment opened and he heard Kibum come inside, the other wasting no time to climb up to his bed to take a look at him.  
  
“You look worse than I expected.”  
  
Kibum didn’t pussyfoot around and stated things as they were. With a little disgust on his face, Kibum brushed off chips crumbs from the mattress before he lay down next to Jonghyun and hugged his in blankets wrapped up form from behind.  
  
“Do you want to talk?”   
  
Jonghyun who looked straight ahead into nothingness, only his face peeking out from the hill of blankets, answered with a simple “No.” He wasn’t in the mood for talking, wasn’t even sure if he would ever be again.   
  
“Okay.”  
  
Kibum hugged him just a little tighter then, the warmth of the other’s body triggering another wave of tears to roll down his face. He had no control over it and the tiniest gesture could lead to him crying his eyes out again. After all the hours of him crying non-stop, one could assume that he had run out of tears, but he was like a fountain, able to appease the thirst of hundreds of people with his tears.  
  
“I’m here for you. You know that, right? And Jinki is as well of course,” Kibum said gently after a while, carefully peeling one layer of blanket after the other away from Jonghyun until his head was bare.   
  
“I know,” Jonghyun replied ruefully, balling his hands to fists beneath the blankets.   
  
Kibum carefully touched Jonghyun’s head and combed through his hair, the strands so greasy from not being washed in days that Kibum pulled a little disgusted face.   
  
“Jinki cooked some soup for you with a chicken he got from his parents’ store. How about getting you out of bed for a bit and sit down in the living room to eat it, hm?”   
  
Kibum’s voice was unusually soothing and Jonghyun knew that he only used that kind of tone when he was really worried about someone. Though he appreciated Kibum’s kindness, he would have preferred it to be left alone so a pack of dogs could finally come around to eat his chips crumbs stained body. Maybe they liked paprika seasoning.   
  
“I’m not sick, Kibum,” he sighed eventually, eyes hurting from all the crying.   
  
“I’m sure chicken soup also helps with a broken heart,” Kibum said lightheartedly and gently nudged Jonghyun’s burrito form. “Come on, hot soup, a warm shower, and fresh clothes can do wonders.”   
  
Jonghyun pulled a very unhappy face. The thought of getting out of bed, let alone showering went against everything he wanted to do at that moment, but Kibum was persistent, sweet-talking Jonghyun until he finally shed the bundle of blankets from his body and followed Kibum downstairs. He felt a little dizzy after having stayed in bed for so long, the light shining through the windows in his living room hurting his eyes.  
  
“I will heat the soup and you can take a quick shower in the meantime, okay?”   
  
Though said in the sweetest voice, Kibum’s words still felt like an order which Jonghyun didn’t dare to oppose. The warm water did feel nice on his skin, but it didn’t help to clear his mind, the shampoo reminding him of Minho and causing him to cry in the shower for ten minutes before he got out of it again.   
  
Kibum had laid out fresh clothes for him; boxer shorts, a snuggly hoodie, and comfortable sweatpants. When he got out of the bathroom his apartment smelled nicely like chicken soup, reminding him of his childhood days when his mother had cooked the soup for him when he had fallen ill.   
  
“There he is. Feeling a little bit better?” Kibum asked as he stirred the soup on the stove. Jonghyun didn’t want to lie so he shook his head and dragged his body over to the couch where Kibum had placed two soup bowls onto the table. He hadn’t told Kibum what had happened, had only sent him a quick message which said ‘He’s gone. It’s over’ after the other had asked him out on another double date in the morning. Jonghyun knew that eventually, Kibum would want to know specifics, but he wasn’t sure what to even tell him. Minho was brought to me all of a sudden, and as suddenly as he had appeared as suddenly he had disappeared again? Everything in his apartment reminded him of Minho, and he hated just sitting on the couch, remembering the evenings they had spent on it together.   
  
They ate the soup mostly in silence except for the times when Kibum commented on how well it tasted. Jonghyun didn’t taste anything which wasn’t Jinki’s fault. He was sure that he would have loved the soup normally, but it felt like his taste buds had died and everything tasted bland. When they were done Kibum cleared the table and washed the dishes while Jonghyun tried to resist the urge of going back to his bed and sleep, his eyes constantly going up his bed niche, the place Jonghyun had last seen Minho, the place where he had fallen asleep in his arms after having sex with him.   
  
“You know, talking tends to help. I don’t know what happened, but he’s not worth it, babe. No man is worth crying a single tear over,” Kibum stated when he joined him back on the couch, Jonghyun looking at him skeptically.   
  
“Not even Jinki?”   
  
Kibum paused for a moment, pursing his lips.  
  
“Not even Jinki,” he said finally and Jonghyun was sure Kibum had only said that to make him feel better and not because it was true.   
  
“Do you want to tell me what happened?” Kibum tried carefully, inching a little closer until he could place a supporting hand on Jonghyun’s knee.   
  
Jonghyun shrugged weakly. “I don’t know what to say – honestly.” He pulled the hood over his head and pulled on the strings until only his nose and lips were still visible. “Nothing happened. He was just gone.”   
  
“Gone? Like how? Did you two fight?”   
  
Shaking his head, Jonghyun sighed deeply.   
  
“We had sex the night before and when I woke up the next morning he was just gone,” Jonghyun elaborated further and formed a little cloud with his hands in the air which he made explode. “Puff. Just gone.”   
  
“Was the sex that bad?”   
  
Jonghyun knew that it was a logical question to ask, considering the time Minho had disappeared, but he considered it a rude question nonetheless.   
  
“No, it was not. It was definitely not,” Jonghyun replied insistently, pulling the hood from his head again to look at his friend in earnest. “It was the best sex I’ve ever had, Kibum.”  
  
“And he thought so, too?” Kibum asked carefully which resulted in Jonghyun rolling his eyes and letting his head fall back against the couch. Minho had beamed from ear to ear after they had finished, had wanted to go down on Jonghyun again right then and there, the memory still making Jonghyun’s insides feel fuzzy.   
  
“Yes, yes – I’m sure he enjoyed it as well.”  
  
When Kibum looped an arm around him, Jonghyun leaned his head against his shoulder and stared at the table in front of them, trying so desperately to get rid of the memories that floated his head. It was an impossible task.  
  
He just couldn’t shake Minho off.   



	19. Vol. 10 – Chapter 1: Christmas is all around me

**Vol. 10 – Chapter 1**   
**Christmas is all around me**

  
  
“And you are sure you don’t want to spend Christmas with us?” Jinki asked as the two of them sat on the couch in Jinki’s and Kibum’s shared apartment, a little boy of 15 months sitting on Jinki’s lap in a pair of dungarees, nibbling on a cracker. It was the neighbor’s kid and the couple was babysitting him for the day while his parents ran some Christmas errands.   
  
“Oh, you know me, Jinki. I don’t want to be the fifth wheel on a perfectly functioning car,” Jonghyun sighed, shaking a little colorful rattle in front of the toddler’s eyes who watched him in fascination.   
  
“But you know that you are always welcome to join us even though you let us know each Christmas how much you hate us,” Kibum called out from the kitchen where he prepared food for Seungwoo.   
  
Jonghyun frowned.  
  
“You know that I don’t hate you. You are practically the only two men on this planet I don’t hate,” Jonghyun called back, smiling when Seungwoo reached out one of his chubby hands and grabbed the rattle.   
  
“I told you about my new colleague, didn’t I? He’s super cute, gay, and single. You would look so good together.”   
  
Kibum walked through the kitchen door holding a little bowl filled with neatly cut banana, apple, and strawberry pieces.   
  
Pulling a disgruntled face, Jonghyun shook his head.   
  
“No, definitely not.”   
  
Handing Jinki the bowl and a little spoon so he could feed Seungwoo, Kibum pouted a little. “But he’s so cute,” he insisted. “He would be the perfect addition to our little gang.”  
  
“We are a gang?” Jonghyun and Jinki both asked simultaneously, laughing when they noticed.   
  
Kibum threw his hands in the air while Jinki picked a piece of strawberry with the spoon and held it in front of Seungwoo’s face who opened his mouth immediately, the piece of fruit disappearing in his chubby cheeks.   
  
“You can’t stay single forever, Jjong. You have to put yourself out there. I mean you turn 30 next year. That’s ancient for gays.”  
  
“Thanks for reminding me,” Jonghyun said sarcastically and fell back against the couch. He wouldn’t put himself out there ever again. Never. It had been ten months and he had only gone back to normal on a surface level, functioning enough to make others believe that he was okay again, that his broken heart had healed, that the Minho file had finally been placed into the archives. But that was all a lie. He still slept with the emerald sweater he had bought Minho every night, though his scent had been long gone.   
  
He spent his weekends getting wasted alone in his apartment until he fell asleep on his living room floor, hoping that he would wake up in bed again with Minho by his side in the morning. However, in ten months this hadn’t happened. He had pleaded, he had begged, he had prayed for Minho to come back to him, but the other didn’t even appear in his dreams anymore. It felt like the world was against him, not even wanting him to be happy in his dreams anymore.   
  
“Kibum’s talking nonsense. You are such a beautiful soul. You will find Mr. Right eventually. I’m certain of that,” Jinki disagreed with his partner who had sat down on an armchair, huffing.   
  
“It’s all good, Jinki. I just – you two don’t understand. I just don’t want a relationship anymore. I thought I did, but it’s not worth it – for me personally. There are too many feelings involved. I don’t want that,” Jonghyun tried to explain while he watched Seungwoo eating, the juices of half of the fruits dribbling down his chin and falling onto his dungarees until Jinki grabbed a napkin and cleaned his mouth.   
  
“You just had bad luck with that Minho guy. Not all guys are like that,” Kibum stated, hitting Jonghyun’s weak spot. He hated it when others even mentioned Minho’s name in passing as if he had just been a fling, no one of importance, but he wasn’t just ‘that Minho’ guy, he was way more than that.  
  
“It’s not because of Minho,” Jonghyun lied because everything was about Minho. “I don’t understand why society brainwashed us so much and made us believe that we all have to be in relationships at a certain age, and if we aren’t, people believe we failed at life or think something is wrong with us. That’s complete bullshit.”   
  
“Language! Careful there. There’s a toddler in the room,” Kibum pointed out and made Jonghyun apologize for his usage of words.   
  
“But isn’t it so? You aren’t any better either, always wanting to set me up with people like I’m a lost cause who can’t handle things on his own,” Jonghyun tried to explain with excessive gestures. “That’s hurtful, you know,” he added in an afterthought. “You two were lucky to find each other and I’m happy for you. But me being single is okay. It’s okay.”   
  
There was silence when Jonghyun finished his little monologue and not even Kibum said anything for a while. Only Seungwoo seemed unimpressed by Jonghyun’s words and turned impatient in Jinki’s lap, his small body wiggling around to free himself from Jinki’s hold on him.   
  
“Down, down, down,” the little boy continuously said with a little whine until Jinki let him down so he could roam around the room on his short legs. He looked cute as he waddled around and walked to Kibum to gnaw on his knee, a little giggle leaving his mouth when Kibum leaned down to tickle his sides. Jonghyun’s childhood hadn’t been a nice one, but at that moment he wished to go back to that time, not wanting to deal with the mind of an adult, not wanting to waste his life on things that wouldn’t change anything.  
  
“I’ll be heading back home. Thanks for lunch.”   
  
Jonghyun got up from the couch and walked over to the door to pick up his winter coat and put on his shoes.  
  
“You don’t have to leave yet,” Kibum followed him into the corridor, watching Jonghyun zip up his coat a little guiltily. “I’m sorry if I hurt you. I didn’t mean to. You know that I just want to see you happy, right?”   
  
“I know,” Jonghyun nodded and opened the front door. “It’s okay now.”   
  
Kibum stepped forward then and slung his arms around Jonghyun, giving him a tight hug.  
  
“If you change your mind, just give me a quick call and I put another plate for you on the table, okay?” he whispered into Jonghyun’s ear and patted his back.  
  
“Thanks, Kibum. Merry Christmas.” 


	20. Vol. 10 – Chapter 2: Soju and Manhwa

**Vol. 10 – Chapter 2**   
**Soju and Manhwa**

  
  
That year it didn’t snow on Christmas Eve. It rained instead. Neither did Jonghyun watch a poorly written drama from the 2000s while getting drunk on soju and eating cheese ramen. Instead, he sat on his couch, drank soju and read vol. 5 of ‘Perfect 10’. Despite the happenings of the past year, Jonghyun didn’t want to break the tradition of reading his favorite manhwa, but following the story of the protagonists felt different now, it was painful.   
  
He took a shot whenever Minho said something cute to Byungho and soon enough Jonghyun’s head turned red from the alcohol, his face resting against the back of the couch as he read the manhwa aloud, his words slurred.  
  
“I just want to see you happy, Byungho,” Jonghyun read with an almost disgusted looking face, and looked at a panel which showed Minho holding the other character’s face in both hands.   
  
“You mean everything to me, Minho.” Jonghyun made his voice go up higher as he read the speech bubble, making Byungho sound like a pubescent teen instead of a grownup man with a doctoral degree in astrophysics. He rolled his eyes at the scene before he leaned forward awkwardly and poured some more soju into his shot glass. He missed the glass, the liquid trickling down onto the table and floor, his coordination having already immensely suffered from the amount of alcohol in his blood.   
  
“Oops,” he exclaimed and decided to just take a sip from the bottle itself. No one was there to judge him for his poor manners anyway. With alcohol pleasantly burning in his throat, he leaned back again, the manhwa in one hand and the bottle of soju in the other.   
  
“I’ve never realized how bad this is,” he said to himself out of spite, hating Santa Nikola for making him dislike the one thing that had always brought him peace in life ever since he was a teenager. He had spent weeks looking at the sky every night and cussing at Santa Nikola for destroying the happiness she had given him. Jonghyun wasn’t even sure if Santa Nikola lived in the sky, for all he knew she could also be living in a forest or underwater, but it felt good to direct his hatred towards someone – to personify everything wrong in his life. Wasn’t it all her fault after all? That weird spirit had been the cause for Jonghyun’s lack of enthusiasm towards anything the past year. It was all her fault. If she hadn’t brought Minho into his life he would probably still be sitting around alone on Christmas, drinking soju, but he wouldn’t feel as miserable doing it as he did now because he wouldn’t know that he could feel something else instead, that he was capable of feeling love.   
  
He hadn’t even told Minho that he loved him.   
  
She hadn’t given him a chance to do so.   
  
Before he knew what he was doing he began to tear pages out of the manhwa violently, tears streaming down his face as he ripped them to small pieces, Minho’s pretty face flying into all directions as Jonghyun threw the paper into the air. He had expected Christmas to be a harder time than any other, but he was overwhelmed by his actions, not understanding himself anymore as he stood up, stumbled over to the bookshelf and did the same to the other nine volumes. Maybe he should have done that all along to finally break with a past he couldn’t change. The sound of the tearing pages only spurred him on and soon he found himself standing in a room covered in thousands of pages, torn faces lying all around him. He was exhausted and breathed heavily when he was done with vol. 10, shredding Minho’s and Byungho’s wedding into tiny pieces until the pages were indistinguishable, the exchange of rings, the display of affections, the smiles, and kisses, all of them were gone.   
  
Only when he looked around he realized what he had just done, his floor covered in paper, an important part of his youth gone. Tired and exhausted he sank onto the floor, his head spinning, and his fingers shaking. He felt numb and didn’t know what to do anymore. Minho had been only with him for a few weeks and yet he had changed his life forever. 


	21. Vol. 10 – Chapter 3: Trip to the Past

**Vol. 10 – Chapter 3**   
**Trip to the Past**

  
  
When Jonghyun woke up again he didn’t know where he was, he just knew that he wasn’t in his apartment any longer, the place around him looking foreign and yet familiar.   
  
“Hello?” he asked as he turned around on the spot, his voice sounding oddly tinny. He seemed to be in a bookstore, shelves over shelves surrounding him and low tables which displayed newly arrived books and magazines. Everything looked a little fuzzy around the edges as if nothing of it was real. Jonghyun walked around carefully when he didn’t receive an answer, coming to a halt in front of a rack with newspapers. In the upper right corner, all had the date May 6th, 2004 written on them. With a frown, he was about to reach out for one of them when he heard a soft cough behind him. Startled, he spun around, a small woman with crimson hair flying around in front of his face. She was tiny, almost pixie-like.  
  
“Hello Jonghyun,” she said in a melodic voice that sounded like it didn’t belong on planet earth. He blinked once and then twice, but the woman stayed the same, smiling mildly at him.   
  
“You must be very confused. I understand that,” the pixie-like person said calmly, pointing her head over to the side. “Maybe we should sit down for a bit?”   
  
“Who are you?” he asked, bewildered as he followed her to a reading corner with two old leather armchairs. When Jonghyun sunk into one of them, the little woman landed onto the armrest, looking up at him.  
  
“You can’t guess who I am?” she asked a little mischievously, cutely tilting her head. She wore a pretty, sparkly green dress which reached down to her knees and green tights, on her feet a pair of shoes which were as red as her hair was. She looked cute as if she had jumped right out of a fairytale.   
  
“No, I’m sorry. I don’t think I can,” Jonghyun answered honestly and watched as she sat down, cross-legged, propping up her face on both hands.   
  
“That’s truly a pity. After all, you talked to me so much this past year. If I remember correctly you called me stupid bitch most often. Not the most flattering nickname, don’t you think?” she sounded quite cheeky as she said that, a little pout forming on her red lips.   
  
Jonghyun blinked again, once, then twice, his mouth falling open as he tried to connect the dots, his fuzzy brain taking longer than expected until his lips formed the name “Santa Nikola.”   
  
“Ding. Ding. Ding. That’s correct. The candidate gets 100 points.”   
  
She smiled brightly at him and stretched her arms into the air with childlike enthusiasm. Jonghyun was dreaming, he was sure about that now. There was no way a little fairylike creature would pop up in his apartment, kidnap him, and bring him to a bookstore.   
  
“You might be wondering why we are here,” she began, sounding more serious.   
  
Jonghyun nodded.   
  
“Well, you see. My powers are quite limited. They only really work on Christmas,” she elaborated and got up, a tiny golden wand appearing in her hand all of a sudden. She walked up and down the armrest with it, looking like the leader of a marching band. “So – because of that – I wasn’t able to reply to your spoken ‘love letters’ to me.”  
  
She came to a standstill and turned around to face him again. The situation was so bizarre that Jonghyun wasn’t sure what to say so he just sat there in silence, listening to her.   
  
“I have to admit my spell was a dumb idea.”  
  
“Your spell?”   
  
She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose dramatically as if she didn’t want to be remembered of ‘the spell’.   
  
“Yeah, it’s like this,” she said and took a deep breath. “How to explain.” Santa Nikola pondered for a while, tipping her wand against her chin in thought. “This will sound bad, but I only had good intentions. I didn’t think anything could go wrong.”   
  
Her little speech sounded more like an apology now and Jonghyun didn’t know what to make out of it, the guilty looking expression on her face making him wary.   
  
“Maybe I should start a little earlier so you understand my point of view a little better,” she said finally and Jonghyun began to wonder if she was ever going to say anything of value.  
  
“Just so you know, I’m not alone. We are a lot of Santa Nikolas in the world. It’s not just me. I mean come on, one little Santa Nikola can’t take care of almost 8 billion people’s wishes,” she explained and pulled a face as if to say that people who believed in the one-man brings presents to kids all over the world in one-night theory were all mad.   
  
“We all have a list of people we look out for and every other Christmas we make one of their dreams come true. Remember when you were nine and desperately wished for that racecar track? Yeah, I’m the reason you’ve got it,” she pointed at herself, looking a little proud.  
  
However, Jonghyun only snorted at that. “My mom bought me that racecar track. Stop talking nonsense.”   
  
Hearing that, Santa Nikola looked quite offended and straightened up a bit, holding her wand into Jonghyun’s direction. “Yes, your mom bought it, but with what money? I’m sure you remember how tough that year had been for your family, right? The money she bought you that racecar track with she got from me. I made her win a decent amount of money in a Christmas lottery so you and your family would be better off and so _YOU_ could get that stupid racecar track.”   
  
For a moment Jonghyun was stunned, not knowing what to reply. He had begged his mom for almost a year for that extremely expensive foreign racecar track and his mother had always patted his head lovingly, telling him that they couldn’t afford it. Jonghyun had been heartbroken and had envied the kids around him who had seemed to have everything. However, on Christmas day the racecar track had stood in front of his bed, the box well wrapped in red paper with a green ribbon attached to it. He still remembered it so clearly because he had been over the moon, having felt like the luckiest boy on earth that day.   
  
“You remember it now, don’t you?” she smiled knowingly when Jonghyun didn’t say anything, and a little self-satisfied she hid her wand behind her back, her chest puffed out.   
  
“Anyway, so one year it was that one guy’s turn, huge nerd, kind of creepy. But we can’t choose who we look out for,” she gave a little shoulder shrug. “So he was into this hentai character. I forgot her name, but he was very into her – physically I might say, not emotionally when I come to think of it.”   
  
She paused for a moment and slowly but surely Jonghyun understood what direction her story would take.   
  
“So I sent her his way until well he was done with her. It was part of the spell. After having sex with her, she would just disappear again. No harm was done. Bam. He was happy and all was good. Christmas miracle accomplished. Until today he thinks that she was only part of a very lucid wet dream,” Santa Nikola concluded, nibble-witted, but then she got quiet suddenly and turned the tip of her left shoe from left to right.   
  
Jonghyun took a deep breath. “You thought because it worked that one time, it would work a second time, didn’t you? Bringing Minho into my life, letting me have sex with him and bam I would be happy and think he was just part of a very lucid wet dream?”   
  
She looked down at her feet now, her cheeks flushed. He couldn’t believe it. All that because some tiny human thought he was a horn-dog who just needed to get laid to be happy again? Jonghyun rubbed his temples, feeling like he was about to get a headache.   
  
“I didn’t think you would get so attached, and – and –,” she stuttered. “And I didn’t think you would wait so long to have sex with him.”   
  
“But I think you always looked the fuck out for me. How could you possibly think that I would have sex the second a good-looking man appears in my apartment?”   
  
The brusqueness of Jonghyun’s words made her wince and she looked abashed, all of her coolness gone.   
  
“I’m sorry. I really am, and – and I’m sorry that I couldn’t do anything. Like I said – We only have power during Christmas,” she apologized carefully, still not daring to look Jonghyun in the eyes.   
  
“Your stupid spell has ruined everything. I’m not sure if you are aware of that. Those past ten months? They were hell for me, you know. Being left alone, not knowing what happened felt awful,” Jonghyun almost screamed now and got up, tearing his hair out. The desperation, the hopelessness, all that because of someone who hadn’t looked further than the tip of their nose.   
  
“I know. I watched you and suffered with you, really.”   
  
Jonghyun grunted.   
  
Santa Nikola crossed her hands as if to demonstrate something. “But my hands were bound.” She lifted herself into the air then and came up to him, flying around his head.   
  
“Look, I make everything right again. I promise,” Santa Nikola said sheepishly, Jonghyun not believing her one bit. What did she want to do? Erase his memory to pretend like nothing ever happened?  
  
“How? By erasing my memory? Or by bringing Minho back until we fuck and he disappears again?” Jonghyun scoffed, crossing his arms in front of his chest.  
  
Santa Nikola shook her tiny head. “No, it doesn’t have to be like that. I can bring him back and not make him leave again after whatever the two of you do or not do. Really,” she tried to reason, Jonghyun’s eyes looking at her doubtfully.   
  
“If that was possible why didn’t you do that last year?”   
  
Faltering a little, she revolved around herself, tiny golden sparks coming from her shoes as she moved.   
  
“Because it’s too much power used on one person for one year. A spell of that size would mean that I would have to use all my power,” she explained.  
  
“Well, then do that.”  
  
“All my power, Jonghyun. It means I won’t be able to use my power ever again after that.”   
  
She looked down again, sad this time, and for the first time, Jonghyun felt a little empathy for her.   
  
“What would happen to you then?” he asked carefully, already expecting the worst.   
  
She sighed lowly and flew around in eights.   
  
“I retire,” she shrugged. “It’s not like I’m going to die or anything. I just will be jobless and you and the others will lose their Santa Nikola.”  
  
“There won’t be a new one coming in your place?”   
  
Only when he had asked the question aloud did he realize how insensitive it sounded, the expression on Santa Nikola’s face darkening.  
  
“No,” she said, a little harshly. “Santa Nikolas retire after the last person on their list has died. If for whatever reason the Santa Nikola can’t work any longer there won’t be a new Santa Nikola in line for those people, instead, those people will have to deal without one for the rest of their lives.”   
  
To Santa Nikola that thought most likely sounded apocalyptic, but when the only job of her was to bring people a little extra joy every few years, how bad could one’s life be without her? Would anyone even notice? Considering that up to a year ago Jonghyun hadn’t even known of the existence of any Santa Nikola the answer was probably ‘No’. It was a selfish thought and a little mean one as well, but there wasn’t anything bad about retiring. She could learn how to play poker or chess and participate in tournaments against other retired Santa Nikolas. That sounded like a lot of fun.   
  
“So,” he began cautiously. “What are you going to do? Will you erase my memory to save your powers?”   
  
Thinking about it scared Jonghyun a little, but if he couldn’t remember ever spending time with Minho, then he wouldn’t be sad about it anymore. Oblivion could be a gift sometimes as well. Everything would be better compared to now, really.   
  
“Do you know where we are, Jonghyun?” she said after a moment, completely ignoring his question.   
  
With a frown, he looked around, still not recognizing the place.   
  
“No, I’m sorry. I don’t. Where are we?”   
  
She sighed a little.   
  
“Wow – your memory is really bad, isn’t it? You spent a lot of time here when you were younger.”   
  
The hint helped him a little, and he stepped forward, taking a look at the newspaper rack again. May 6th, 2004. The first volume of ‘Perfect 10’ had been released that day.   
  
“Is that the bookstore close to my old school?” he asked then, his memory slowly coming back to him.   
  
“Ding. Ding. Ding. Yes, it is. You know why I brought you here?”   
  
“To make me feel nostalgic?” Jonghyun took a wild guess, remembering now how he had sat down in those leather chairs to read manhwas several times a week.   
  
“No.” She shook her head and flew ahead, gesturing towards Jonghyun to follow her. The two of them came to a stop in front of a bookshelf in the back of the store, several copies of the first volume of ‘Perfect 10’ displayed in front of them with a sign attached to the bookshelf that read ‘New in store’ in bold letters.   
  
“You got drunk again and tore all of your copies apart, didn’t you?” she asked a little accusatory, Jonghyun feeling like he was about to get scolded by his mother. “I don’t promote your drinking, but it was good that you tore those manhwas apart.”   
  
The comment came unexpected and Jonghyun looked at her in bewilderment, not knowing what to say.   
  
“You didn’t reread them each year because they are A+ literature, did you? Let’s be real the plot is really bad and so sappy,” Santa Nikola sounded almost like a literature critic now, flying closer to the shelf to settle down on the row with the ‘Perfect 10’ manhwas. Even the manhwas were taller than her.   
  
“You read them because you are a sap. They were a part of your youth that you didn’t want to part with. They clung to you like a turtle shell. Kibum is right, you know. About the story giving you false expectations of men, or of what love should be like. It’s okay to fantasize about the perfect love, don’t get me wrong. It’s just –,“ She looked as if she was searching for the right words. “It made you isolate yourself completely. So I hope that ripping these manhwas apart will give you a new perspective and that you won’t be running to the next secondhand shop and buy yourself another set. See your actions as a cut, the you of today to the you of tomorrow.”   
  
Jonghyun wasn’t quite sure why she told him something he was aware of himself, but he merely nodded, not wanting to offend her again. Maybe she had a point after all, and ripping the manhwas apart would help him to put his life into a new direction.   
  
“So,” Santa Nikola looked around a little clueless and sat down on the edge of the bookshelf, crossing her legs. “I’m not sure what else to tell you.”   
  
“Maybe tell me what you are going to do about my situation?”   
  
It felt ridiculous to even mention it. What had she brought him here for in the first place if not to tell him what she was about to do with his life? She looked at him for a moment and then smiled, a little gleam popping up in her green eyes.  
  
“Nah,” she shrugged her shoulders cutely and before Jonghyun could say anything it turned dark around him. 


	22. Vol. 10 – Chapter 4: Baby Blue Boxers

**Vol. 10 – Chapter 4**  
**Baby Blue Boxers**

  
  
  
That was the most fucked up dream Jonghyun had ever had, easily topping the alien meat production one. Jonghyun felt exhausted right after waking up, his head spinning with unanswered questions. He wasn’t sure if all of this even had been a dream or if the real Santa Nikola just had happened to appear in one of his dreams. Holding his head, he tried to sit up when the smell of freshly brewed coffee wafted passed him. Bemused, he looked down into the living room, his eyes almost falling out of their sockets when he saw Minho standing in front of his pantry kitchen, filling two cups with coffee.   
  
“Minho!” he yelled, sounding almost feverishly, his body functioning on autopilot as he tried to find his way out of the blankets as quickly as possible.   
  
“Hey babe, I was just about to wake you up.”   
  
Hearing Minho’s voice again after ten months almost made Jonghyun burst out into tears and he hurried down the stairs, tripping over his own two feet. He couldn’t believe it. She had really brought him back.   
  
Being way too excited, Jonghyun ran over to Minho and crashed into him, knocking the air out of the other as he slung his arms around him and pressed his face against Minho’s naked chest.   
  
“Well, that’s a very enthusiastic morning greeting,” Minho chuckled, gently patting Jonghyun’s hair. “Is everything okay with you?”   
  
Jonghyun couldn’t stop inhaling Minho’s scent, couldn’t stop memorizing the way the other felt, the way his heartbeat sounded, the way his chuckle made his insides turn upside down. He hadn’t believed that he would ever get the chance to be this close to the other again. It felt like a miracle.   
  
“I missed you so much.” He began to cry, big, heavy tears dripping from his eyes and falling onto Minho’s chest who seemed utterly perplexed by his extreme reaction and lifted Jonghyun’s chin with his fingers to look at him.   
  
“But why? I only got up like 10 minutes ago and that already made you miss me?” he gently smiled down at Jonghyun before pressing a soft, little kiss to the tip of his nose. “You will give me diabetes with all that sugar you have in you.”   
  
Overcome with emotions the comment made Jonghyun only cry harder, his hands shaking and his knees feeling weak. If that happened to be just another dream he never wanted to wake up from it again.   
  
“You don’t remember being gone?” Jonghyun sniffled, his face feeling wet. Minho carefully wiped the tears away with his thumbs before he cupped Jonghyun’s face in both hands.   
  
“You just had a bad dream, mh?” he reassured Jonghyun and then bent down to kiss him on the lips. “After last night I assumed you would have nice dreams of you and me – ,” Minho paused for a second, his lips hovering closely over Jonghyun’s with a smug grin. “fucking.”   
  
Jonghyun’s ears turned red and he slowly realized that Minho still must be the same Minho from ten months ago, the Minho whose last memory probably was of him falling asleep next to Jonghyun after them having sex for the first time. Santa Nikola hadn’t altered his brain, hadn’t added any knowledge of what had happened in the past few months. She had just copied and pasted him into Jonghyun’s life again. To Minho, life continued as normal as if the cut had never happened. Jonghyun began to smile involuntarily, feelings of pain and happiness mixing in his brain and making him feel fuzzy and disoriented. He was not sure what to do. Whether he should tell Minho about what happened or if he should remain silent and just enjoy that he had the other back.  
  
“Yeah, I guess I should have,” he said in a whisper, lips prickling when Minho’s mouth touched his again, warm, soft and welcoming.   
  
When Minho pulled back he brushed a strand of hair behind Jonghyun’s ear, the smile on his face widening. “I know you probably don’t want to hear it, but last night – last night was incredible.”   
  
With a flushing face, Jonghyun dropped his gaze and bit back a smile. He had missed the other so much; his presence, his voice, his touch, the little stupid comments he sometimes made, and the flirty and cute ones.   
  
“Was it?”   
  
Jonghyun decided to play along, wiping the rest of his tears away, wanting to pretend that the past ten months had never happened only for a little while, wanted to act like his mind was like the one of himself in the past. He deserved that much. After all the pain he had gone through, he deserved a little distraction.   
  
There was a low, agreeing hum before Minho’s hands slid along Jonghyun’s sides and down to his butt, disappearing under the seam of his boxer shorts. Jonghyun’s breath hitched when the other grabbed him, his cock immediately stirring against the other’s thigh, clearly having missed Minho just as much as the rest of Jonghyun’s body had. It had been so long that Jonghyun had a hard time controlling his body’s reactions to being touched. This is what he had wished for to happen in the morning after their first time. Them being goofy and intoxicated with love, not able to let go of each other, needing the body contact, the attention from the other one. Experiencing this post-orgasm euphoria ten months later felt surreal and Jonghyun tried to sort his thoughts, his mind foggy and besotted.   
  
“Already so excited?” Minho whispered teasingly, and pressed a few kisses down Jonghyun’s neck, the sensation only adding to the fogginess in Jonghyun’s brain. A part of him felt like he should be talking to Minho instead of making out with him, but didn’t they have more than enough time to talk later? Wasn’t it better to savor the moment and turn his thoughts off for a little while?   
  
Tilting his neck, Jonghyun offered Minho more access, his breath hitching when the other’s teeth gently bit into his neck and tugged at the skin. Feeling his body heat going up, Jonghyun’s fingers dug into Minho’s waist and he tried to pull him closer until their bodies were flush against each other.   
  
“Bed?”   
  
Minho murmured against Jonghyun’s skin questioningly which Jonghyun only answered with a low whimper before he put some distance between them again. Grabbing his hand Jonghyun pulled Minho with him, the two of them stopping every other step up to the little bed niche to kiss each other.   
  
Jonghyun ended up sitting in Minho’s lap, red-faced and with his hair sticking to his forehead as he moved, slowly and gently, indulging in the feeling of being this close to the other again. He hadn’t expected to ever feel that way again, so he took his time, circled his hips and watched Minho’s reaction to the way he moved; the glassiness of his eyes, the wet shimmer on his lips, the strain in his neck, and the sweat glistening between his collarbones. When he felt the heat in his body getting too much he leaned forward to press an open-mouthed kiss to Minho’s lips, the long-stretched moan that followed swallowed by their kiss as Jonghyun rode out his orgasm, fingernails clawing at Minho’s shoulders, blissful sensations rippling through his body until he stilled, his breath faltering, an exhausted but gleeful smile tugging at his lips.   
  
“God, I missed you so much,” he babbled, caught in a swirl of freshly released endorphins, body collapsing on top of Minho’s who slung his arms around him and pressed a kiss to his forehead.   
  
“I like that side of you,” Minho said in a sweet voice, fingers dancing over Jonghyun’s heated shoulders, every touch sending tiny electric sensations down Jonghyun’s spine. “You are suddenly so expressive. I like that.” He rolled them over then, a stifled sound coming from Jonghyun’s lips as he felt the other dive deeper inside of him, his eyes falling shut.   
  
“I want to hear more things like that. Don’t hold back with me anymore, okay? I won’t leave. I promise.” With Minho’s voice so close to his ear as he moved his hips, Jonghyun searched for the other’s hand to interlock their fingers. He wanted to desperately believe Minho, never wanted the other to leave his side again, tiny tears beginning to build up in the corners of his eyes again at the thought of possibly being separated from him again. When Minho noticed his change in expression, he halted immediately, concern crossing over his face.  
  
“Hey, what’s going on? Am I hurting you or anything?”   
  
When Minho was about to pull out, Jonghyun held him back by slinging his legs around him, shaking his head vehemently.  
  
“No, no – it’s not. It’s perfect,” he said in earnest. “You are perfect.”   
  
Minho smiled down at him. “A perfect 10, huh?”   
  
Both of them chuckled at the cheesiness of Minho’s joke, Minho’s nose brushing along Jonghyun’s before he pecked his lips.   
  
“I’ve seriously fallen in love with an idiot,” Jonghyun whispered against Minho’s lips with a smile, Minho immediately pulling his head back to look at Jonghyun, wearing the stupidest smile he had ever seen on him.  
  
He cocked his head to the side in a cute fashion, brown locks falling into his face as he asked in the sweetest tone “Did you just admit that you are in love with me?”  
  
This whole situation was way too funny as not to laugh about it and the sounds leaving Jonghyun’s mouth felt freeing, they made him feel as if he was finally able to breathe again. Here they were in the middle of having sex, talking about their feelings.   
  
He nodded. “Yes – yes – that’s what it means.”   
  
Jonghyun hadn’t deemed it possible, but Minho’s face seemed to light up even more, the cutest little wrinkles appearing in the corners of his glassy eyes.   
  
“Say it,” he demanded in a playful tone, poking Jonghyun into the side, making him wriggle from left to right. “Say it or I will pull out and leave you high and dry.”   
  
Jonghyun snickered at the ridiculousness of the empty threat and looked down between them before he cocked an eyebrow. “Well, I’m perfectly fine now. I’m not the one with a boner.”  
  
That comment made Minho laugh and he buried his face into the crock of Jonghyun’s neck out of embarrassment, biting into his neck with a tiny, unhappy sounding growl.   
  
“You are always so mean to me.” Minho feigned a whine as his lips found their way back to Jonghyun’s mouth, teeth gently tugging at Jonghyun’s bottom lip. “How come the mean ones are always the prettiest?” he questioned, the tip of his tongue nudging against the center of Jonghyun’s top lip to irritate him. It was a compliment wrapped up in an insult, something Minho was good at when he didn’t get what he wanted immediately.   
  
“Hey!” Jonghyun placed his hands on Minho’s cheeks, squishing them together until the other reminded him of a blowfish. It was a cute sight, Minho’s full lips pursed to a pout and his cheeks looking like the ones of a chipmunk in the middle of collecting nuts for winter.   
  
“I love you,” he finally admitted. “I love you so damn much, you have no idea.” It felt easy to say it aloud now, there were no inhibitions anymore, no worries. He just wanted to enjoy the moment and see that smile on Minho’s lips again that made him weak in the knees. Minho had been the best thing that had ever happened to him, and he wouldn’t exchange his existence for anything else in the world. The ten months without him had made that clear enough for him.   
  
He thought of the little pixie for one second and how thankful he was that she had corrected her mistake, and had brought Minho back again instead of deciding to take the easy route and just delete every memory of Minho.   
  
“I lub u tu,” Minho mumbled, his cheeks still squished between Jonghyun’s hands so it was hard for him to form coherent words. With a snicker Jonghyun removed his hands again, getting the air knocked out of his chest when Minho slung his arms around him in the next moment and showered him with loud and wet kisses from his forehead down to his chin, from his left cheek to his right one, continuously whispering ‘I love you’ in between each of them, Jonghyun’s heart feeling warm and as if it had finally come home.   
  
They were a match, a perfect match. 

  
  
**The End**


	23. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

  
  
  
_‘The End’_  
  
Taemin’s thumb brushed lightly over the ink at the end of the page, the paper already yellowed from years of being exposed to the sun, and the pages warped and curly from being dropped into the bathtub way too many times.  
  
“The End,” he mouthed to himself, his lips forming into a little dissatisfied pout. “Hm.”  
  
A long sigh followed.  
  
He held the manhwa above his head with both hands, staring intensely at the last panel. It showed Jonghyun and Minho in a tight embrace, Jonghyun pressing his face against the taller one’s chest with a soft smile on his lips, and little speech bubbles surrounding their heads with the words ‘I love you’ written in them. The happy ending Taemin had dreaded to read ever since he had finished the first volume of the series for the first time years ago. No matter how often he had escaped real life to follow Jonghyun’s magical journey, it still hurt whenever he found himself at the finishing line once again. A little disgruntled he flung his legs into the air and kicked the wall next to him sulkily, not wanting to face reality yet. It frustrated him that a pure love like that didn’t exist in real life. That men like Minho and Jonghyun didn’t exist in real life; sweet guys with hearts of gold. He had never met someone as sweet as Jonghyun’s character was in this story in real life, the guys in his senior class at high school still laughing over farting noises and goggling at girls in short skirts.  
  
His head up in the clouds the manhwa slipped from his fingers and landed onto his face, hitting his nose painfully, the round glasses sitting on his nose shifting up and almost poking him in the eye. Taemin was convinced that there was a higher power somewhere that wanted to make life extra difficult for him. After he had removed the manhwa from his face and had corrected the fit of his glasses he turned onto his side and took a look at his body pillow that had a very cutely colored drawing of Jonghyun on it, winking at him cheekily with a toothy grin. He was about to reach out his hand to touch the character’s tousled, brown hair when the door to his room flung open and his heart stopped beating for a second, the sound of someone intruding his privacy making him freeze on the spot.  
  
“Yo Taems! Do we have homework for tomorrow?”  
  
When Taemin’s body began functioning again he turned around only to see the neighbor’s kid stand in the door frame; straw in his mouth, slurping some strawberry milk, the white shirt of his school uniform pulled out of his pants, and the red tie around his neck loosened.  
  
Taemin merely rolled his eyes at him before he sat up, and pushed his glasses up his nose once again. “You could have sent me a message to ask that,” he grumbled and got up unwillingly to drag his body over to the desk.  
  
“Why? Were you busy jerking off to your manhwa boy – again?”   
  
The nonchalant way in which Jongin reminded him of the last time he had burst into his room, unannounced, made Taemin blush, and he harrumphed as he sunk into his desk chair and pulled out his school bag from beneath the table.  
  
“I wasn’t jerking off – again,” He mumbled ruefully as he pulled out his math book and flipped it open, browsing to the pages until he found the correct one which was marked by a dog-ear. “Pages 167 to 169. That was all.”  
  
“Fuck. Three pages? I hate my life,” he wailed dramatically and waddled over to Taemin’s bed with hanging shoulders. He grabbed the body pillow and hugged it tightly to his chest before flinging himself onto the mattress, acting as he lived here – what he basically did, considering that Taemin and he had been best friends since kindergarten and had been inseparable ever since. They were like twins with the only difference that Jongin had an actual girlfriend while Taemin fantasized over fictional characters.  
  
Jongin made kissy faces at the body pillow and rolled around with it from side to side, reenacting what he probably assumed to be a very hot make-out session. “Oh, Jonghyun- _hyung_ – you are so cute. I want to be with you forever.” There were loud kissing noises which turned the tips of Taemin’s ears red.  
  
“You are such an asshole,” Taemin grumbled in his helpless defense and threw the first best thing he could find – a pencil – at Jongin, hitting him at the back of his head. But the pencil seemed to have no effect on his friend at all because he showed no reaction to it, and still pretended to be intimate with Taemin’s body pillow, hugging it with his leg and frantically running his hands all over it.  
  
“Yah stop it! I dare you,” he growled and as if Jongin had only waited for Taemin to get angry, he smirked at him provocatively when the other stalked over and threw himself onto his best friend, making the old, wooden bed squeak terribly under the added weight. Jongin laughed heartedly when Taemin punched him, his legs placed next to his hips on either side, the body pillow squished between them.  
  
“Uuuh – a threesome,” Jongin chortled in amusement, and crossed his arms in front of his chest to protect himself, Taemin quickly loosening his strength and giving up when his fist landed against a button of Jongin’s shirt and he hurt himself instead of his best friend. Jongin had always been the stronger one of the two.  
  
He squished himself between Jongin and the wall while holding his hurting fist, throwing daggers at the other with his eyes who was still smiling brightly. “I hate you – like I fucking hate you, man.”  
  
“Nah – you love me,” Jongin beamed and moved his body a little to the side to give Taemin more space. “You know that I’m just kidding, right? You two have my blessing. There was some dude in Japan who married Hatsune Miku. So why shouldn’t you be able to marry Kim Jonghyun?”  
  
“I don’t want to marry a fictional character. I’m not delulu,” Taemin objected and blew some strands of hair out of his heated face, feeling exhausted and sweaty from his little one-man fight.  
  
Jongin looked at him, scrutinizing. “Are you sure about that. I mean the last part.” He ducked his head when Taemin tried to hit him once again and then waved an imaginary white flag in front of his face with a careful smile.  
  
“I’ll stop now,” he tried to reconcile and relaxed into Taemin’s pillow when the other dropped his fists.  
  
With a deep sigh, Taemin turned onto his back and murmured a “Thank you”, the tension he had held in his body slowly fading away.  
  
“My sister shouldn’t have given you her favorite manhwa series to read when she left for university. It gave you wrong expectations of love – and men,” Jongin babbled and picked up the manhwa Taemin had finished earlier from the nightstand to take a look at it.  
  
Taemin shook his head in protest. “It was the best gift she could have ever given me. She’s the best. Be more like your older sister.” He poked the younger one in the ribs teasingly which resulted in Jongin flinching and trying to slap Taemin’s hand away.  
  
“Never,” Jongin replied mischievously and flipped through the pages until he found a rather detailed sex scene near the end. “It sucks that their dicks are always blurred out.”  
  
“Why would you want to see their dicks?” Taemin asked, frowning.  
  
Jongin shrugged. “I don’t know. To compare?”  
  
“You are so weird.”  
  
“Says the guy who reads sexually explicit manhwa and sleeps with a character body pillow every night. But sure I’m the weird one,” Jongin countered and cocked his head to take a better look at one of the panels. “I always wondered why you’re so into Jonghyun and not Minho. Like look at Minho – he looks like a god.”  
  
Taemin felt his cheeks heat up again and pushed his glasses further up his nose while thinking about a response, not quite sure what to answer without completely embarrassing himself.  
  
“He’s cute, that’s why,” he finally admitted and shrugged his shoulders a little sheepishly.   
  
That reply earned him a snort and a little pout formed on Taemin’s lips.  
  
“Why would you want someone cute if you could have some god-like creature as a boyfriend?”  
  
“Apart from the fact that in reality, I won’t ever date someone cute or god-like, I just like Jonghyun’s character a lot. He’s smart and witty, but also a little grumpy bear. It’s cute how he tries to act like he doesn’t care but in reality, he does care a lot. How can you not like someone like that? Just watching him silently would sound like a fun activity,” Taemin explained further, remembering how hard he had fallen for Jonghyun’s character throughout his journey of finding true love in Minho – the guy he had woken up next to one day.  
  
There was an understanding hum before Jongin closed the manhwa again and tossed it aside a little carelessly.   
  
“Now that you’ve finished ‘Perfect 10’ again, are you going to continue with ‘Sweet Surprise’?”   
  
Taemin shook his head immediately. “You know I’m not a big fan of the spin-off.”  
  
“Just because it focuses more on Kibum and – what was his partner’s name again?”  
  
“Jinki.”  
  
“Jinki it is then,” Jongin ended his sentence and nudged Taemin playfully. “Be honest, you just don’t like it because it’s G-rated and doesn’t have steamy sex scenes in it.”  
  
Taemin’s cheeks flushed bright red. “That’s not true,” he stammered, trying to kick Jongin off the bed with his feet, the attempt hopeless and only making his friend laugh sardonically. “It’s just – they adopt a child and raise it. I’m 17. I don’t want to think about children yet,” he tried to explain with a pout.   
  
“Fair enough,” Jongin agreed and looked around the room, seemingly not interested in continuing their conversation about Taemin’s manhwa hobby for longer than necessary. “Let’s play something on your Switch, ‘kay? I can’t stand the thought of having to do my math homework just yet,” he said to change the topic and sat up with a groan, looking at Taemin over his shoulder.  
  
When Taemin nodded, Jongin rose his fist into the air triumphantly and jumped up from the bed to look for the Switch in Taemin’s closet, swiftly connecting the TV with the gaming console.  
  
“How about FIFA?”  
  
Taemin slowly sat up in his bed, casting one last glance at Jonghyun’s face printed onto the body pillow. What fun it would be if he woke up next to a real-life Jonghyun one day and played a game of FIFA with him instead of Jongin? The thought of a wish that would never come true because he was not part of a manhwa storyline put a sad smile on his lips, and he patted the pillow one last time before stuffing it behind his back to sit more comfortably against the wall.  
  
“Sure, but I take Real Madrid!”  
  
“Oh man, you suck!”  
  
“Not as much as you do!”

  
  
**The End**  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! ♡


End file.
